Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Sidda is exhausted after writing and falls asleep. She wakes to find a key on the floor that dropped out of the scrapbook. She wonders what it might be for, and calls Vivi, who admits she doesn’t know. Sidda thanks Vivi for lending her the scrapbook, acknowledging that it is a grand gesture. She asks Vivi if she will write more about her life. Vivi says she has already given enough of herself through the scrapbook and warns Sidda not to analyze her. That night, Sidda opens the scrapbook again, this time to a page called: “Vivi’s Very Important News: Issue No. 1, Saturday, December 8, 1934: Girls Poot and Get Disqualified by Viviane Abbott. Age 8” (48). There is nothing on the other side, and Sidda feels frustrated that the scrapbook seems to only reveal part of the story.

As Sidda sits in Seattle and thinks about what might have happened on that day in 1934, Vivi sits with her Ouija board in Louisiana, and it points to the same year. She recalls the day that she and the other Ya-Yas, at age eight, got dressed and had their hair curled for a Shirley Temple lookalike contest. It was to be held at a theater called The Bob, a chain of theaters owned by Caro’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bob. Vivi believes that she looks the most like Shirley Temple out of all her friends, but she doesn’t tell them that and thinks they all look wonderful.

At the contest, the girls simply stand on stage and smile while a man walks around looking at and judging each one. Vivi considers it a wasted opportunity to show off some of her many talents. When Teensy suddenly passes gas on stage, all the Ya-Ya girls burst out laughing and cannot contain themselves. They laugh hysterically even as the judge orders them to stop. The audience joins them when Caro tells the crowd what Teensy did, and then Vivi announces herself as “Pooty Pootwell” (56). As they’re ushered offstage, Teensy runs back and shakes her behind at the audience, raising one final roar of laughter. Her brother, Jack, cheers from the audience, too. Teensy’s mother is irate at the girls for wasting the opportunity, and Mr. Bob decides that they will have to clean the theater every Saturday to make up for ruining the show. Vivi feels that the punishment is unjust and decides to create “Vivi’s Very Important News” to share the truth about her opinion (59).

Sidda decides to build a fire in the rain, and she thinks about her mother’s skill in building fires. She tries several approaches but fails, so she instead goes back inside to look at the scrapbook. Some walnut shells fall out from one page, and while Sidda is unsure why they’re there, she knows to put them back inside. She wonders what secrets they contain.

In 1937, Vivi and Caro are tasked with cleaning a Virgin Mary statue that Vivi’s father brought from Cuba. Vivi’s mother wants them to not only wipe off all its makeup but to remove its brown skin tone, as well. Vivi and Caro find the request ridiculous but they are told they cannot play in the new hammock until they complete the task. By the time they are done, Teensy and Necie arrive for a sleepover, and Teensy comments on how frightened the statue looks. She grabs the jewelry that came with the statue and puts it in her pocket, and the girls spend time on the hammock. Later that night, they wait until Vivi’s parents are asleep before sneaking out of the house to perform their sacred Ya-Ya initiation ritual. They make their way into the woodsy bayou, each with her own task to perform during the ceremony.

Vivi, the “Mistress of Legend” (71), tells the story of how the Ya-Ya tribe began in the bayou of Louisiana centuries before. It consisted of a group of women who were found by an ape who raised them and loved them as her own. A hurricane took their ape mother and the other girls, leaving only these four. One day, they were nearly eaten by alligators, but a “Moon Lady” incinerated the alligators (71), promising to always watch over the Ya-Yas.

The girls beat empty oatmeal boxes as drums, dance naked, and receive their tribal names. Next, they each prick their finger and join hands, then lick the blood off their fingers, solidifying themselves as united sisters who will live on through one another. Necie brings out some walnut shells and gives each girl a candle. They light them and set them adrift into the river. Back at home, the girls repaint the Virgin Mary statue with her brown skin and makeup and then fall asleep curled up together in bed. When Vivi’s mother sees the statue the next morning, Teensy suggests that it might be some sort of miracle. She and the girls pray together.

The rain continues in Washington, where Sidda sits at the cabin and opens a letter from Connor that tells her how much he misses her. She writes back, and then looks at a photo in the scrapbook of the four Ya-Yas as teenagers. They sit together on the porch at Vivi’s childhood home, legs entwined, relaxed, and comfortable with one another as they try to stay cool in the summer heat. Sidda stares at the photograph and wishes that she could experience the same type of sisterly bond. She thinks about how such a photograph will never be taken again, as that was a time before air conditioning and television brought everyone inside. As a child, Sidda learned to navigate her mother’s moods and measure the emotional state of people she encountered. Now, she wishes she could simply be free, with friends, embracing the unexpected.

Necie sends Sidda a package of letters that Vivi wrote to her in December of 1939 when the other three Ya-Yas took a train to Atlanta for the Junior League’s Gone with the Wind costume ball. The Junior League is a women’s organization dedicated to helping women take up positions of leadership in society. Expectations were high as Vivi, Caro, and Teensy went to stay with Teensy’s Aunt Louise in her mansion. They were chaperoned by a maid from Vivi’s family, a Black woman named Ginger. Upon arriving, Ginger was told to change into a maid’s uniform for the remainder of the trip, and for the most part, she was kept away from the girls.

Sidda reads the letters and can sense Vivi’s excitement. She writes: “Girl, girl, girl! We have just gotten home after the most exciting day that I have ever had in my life” (93). The night they arrived, the girls took a bath together, and the following day, they attended a parade and saw all the actors from the movie. The girls dressed up for the ball early the next morning, and Teensy’s younger cousin James annoyed them during the ride to the ball. Many of the actors attended the ball, but Margaret Mitchell (the author of Gone with the Wind) was nowhere to be seen. Vivi heard later from Aunt Louise that Miss Mitchell didn’t attend because she had been banned from the Junior League years before for performing a racy dance. Later that night, the girls attended the premiere of the film, and Vivi was enthralled by it, wishing she could live in its drama. She also caught a glimpse of Miss Mitchell.

That night, Vivi awoke feeling lonely and looked for Ginger. She found Ginger in her room crying, and Ginger explained that she missed her family. Vivi didn’t understand and felt uncomfortable seeing Ginger cry; she tried to get her to make some hot chocolate. Ginger told Vivi to make it herself—something she had never said before. Before heading home the following day, the girls ate breakfast with Aunt Louise and James. When Ginger came in with some hot chocolate for Vivi, James called her a racial slur and told her she didn’t have permission to enter the dining area. At this, Vivi insulted James and threw her plate of food at him. His mother picked Vivi up and shook her, banishing her from the home. On the train ride home, Vivi found Ginger in the car for Black passengers and was surprised to see her having fun and drinking with strangers.

Sidda feels overwhelmed by the letters and takes her dog for a walk, appreciating the old forest around her. Afterward, she rents Gone with the Wind and watches it repeatedly, rewinding certain scenes and studying the cinematography. Sidda thinks about how the movie perpetuates “a mythic South” that encourages drama (112), and that this likely had some influence on her mother, who was 13 at the time and completely enthralled by the movie. Sidda remembers knowing Ginger when she was young, and she thinks about how Black women raised her as much as her mother did, if not more. In particular, one woman named Willetta continues to be a source of comfort and friendship in Sidda’s life. Sidda wonders whether she will ever be brave enough to love Connor, knowing she will lose him some day.