Make Lemonade

Jolly, who never takes drugs, implies that a drug addiction may have contributed to her sleeping with her babies’ fathers. She says, “‘You go smoking that drug […] You end up pregnant/because some guy has some nice high for you’” (154). A few weeks later, when Jolly mentions she once had a “gram” (154), LaVaughn assumes she means drugs—but she actually means a foster mother. Jolly says her Gram cared for her, but that she’s dead now. One of Gram’s previous foster children, now a grown-up, often came back to visit and rototill Gram’s garden. The man’s name was Jeremy, and Jolly named her son after him.

Jolly explains rototilling to LaVaughn: “‘It turns the soil […] You have to rototill. Otherwise nothing grows’” (157). Jolly also remembers how her Gram had a “‘family-tree T-shirt’” (158) with all her foster kids’ names on it, including Jolly’s, and she says how the adult Jeremy was “‘the nicest man’” (158). LaVaughn is surprised to learn that in a way, Jolly did have “folks” (159), but after this brief revelation, Jolly “never says anything more” about them, “ever again” (159).