A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

Ricki Wilde, at 28 years old, is the youngest member of her family, the Wildes of Wilde Funeral Homes Inc.—a company founded in 1932. She has many hobbies, including thrifting, refurbishing furniture, collecting interesting words, and cooking cannabis candy. However, she does not excel at being a Wilde; unlike her three older sisters—Rashida, Regina, and Rae—who were each born a year apart, Ricki is the outlier, conceived 15 years after Rae. Ricki’s life has not followed the plan set out for her by her parents, and she is a constant disappointment: While she dates often, her fear of intimacy has resulted in three broken engagements, much to her family’s embarrassment.

Ricki attends the Wildes’ Sunday dinner, which doubles as a weekly business meeting led by her mother and father, Carole and Richard. Her arrival is met with her sisters’ disdain for her eccentric vintage style. Ricki brushes their judgments off, but they secretly wound her. Her older sisters discuss their latest Wilde Funeral Homes franchises; Regina hopes to open a Pass Away Café to offer grieving families brunch while they discuss final plans for their loved ones. Ricki criticizes the coldness of the concept, but she is mocked for being a lowly receptionist at Wilde Funeral Homes. Ricki’s dream is to open a flower shop—she has a successful floristry account on Instagram that makes her thousands of dollars from brand partnerships and earned a degree in horticulture—but her family believes the venture will be unprofitable. Ricki asserts that she will follow her passion anyway, which Richard takes as her two weeks’ notice.

Ricki struggles to find a shop location. During a shift at the Wilde Funeral Home flagship property a week and a half later, she meets Della Bennett—a 96-year-old woman from Harlem whose husband, Dr. Eustace Bennett, has recently died. They bond over their romantic ideas of the Harlem Renaissance and Ricki becomes enamored with the transformative way Della speaks about love. Della is supportive of Ricki’s dream to open a flower shop and tells Ricki about the empty ground-floor apartment beneath her brownstone in Harlem “just waiting for the right person to bring it back to life” (23).

Ricki moves into the Harlem apartment in early September. She finds the historical district of Italianate brownstones charming and enjoys imagining the glamorous Black aristocrats who called the area home during the Harlem Renaissance. Now, there are many more upper-middle-class white families living here than Black ones. The ground floor of Della’s four-story house is a boarded-up apartment; Ricki can set up her shop and live in the small studio in the back. Ricki has sold her car and three engagement rings; with her brand partnership earnings, she can cover the first six months of rent and business expenses. Rather than spend money on renovations, Ricki strips the floors, paints, and refurbishes the antique furniture abandoned inside. Ricki intends to open her shop, Wilde Things, in approximately two months, on December 1.

One afternoon, Ricki witnesses a rowdy friend group at a local café and is struck by overwhelming loneliness. She worries her flower shop will fail with no support system to rely on. Ricki has never been adept at making friends but decides it’s time to “Get Out There” (29). On November 3, Ricki attends a networking event for local Black creatives at a rustic Jamaican British restaurant called the Edge. Her excessive awkwardness proves disastrous and Ricki leaves early.

Ricki hires a handyman named Ali to build shelves; they are soon casually dating. Not long after, former child television star Tuesday Rowe seeks shelter in Ricki’s shop to avoid pursuit by three creepy men. Tuesday likes Ricki’s eccentric style and vintage shop, and they form an immediate friendship. The grand opening of Wilde Things is highly successful; by New Year’s Day, Ricki doubles her projected income. However, by the end of January, her shop loses momentum. To calm her rising anxiety, Ricki goes to the community garden on 145th Street. A plaque reading, “The Site of Eden Lounge Cabaret 1927-1929” celebrates the nightclub whose destruction marked the end of the Harlem Renaissance, “when Black brilliance captivated the world” (35). Drawn further into the garden by her favorite scent—jasmine—Ricki meets a beautiful man who looks terrified to see her. Ricki also has a perplexing, visceral reaction to the stranger, who swiftly disappears. The strangeness of the interaction is compounded by her realization that it is February, but the jasmine in the garden should only flower between July and October.

Ezra “Breeze” Walker, a 23-year-old, comes from a talented musical family of sharecroppers in Fallon, South Carolina. His father played harmonica in a traveling troupe, his mother taught ukulele, his sister has a beautiful singing voice, and Breeze plays piano. Breeze escapes his small town in 1917 when he joins a Black Infantry Division stationed in France during World War I. In France, he learns that not all white people are hateful and racist as the Americans back home. When he returns to the US in 1919, he experiences the Red Summer—a period of horrific anti-Black violence committed by white mobs. Breeze’s family is killed—along with their entire church congregation—by the Ku Klux Klan. Only his cousin, Sonny, survives and flees north, while Breeze stays behind.

Breeze loses his passion for the piano until Sonny begins sending him newspapers and jazz records from Harlem, New York. In 1923, Breeze moves to Harlem, which he views as “the Sepia Paradise” (39), filled with Blacks doctors, clergymen, and poets. Breeze reunites with his Sonny, who brings him to a piano cutting contest at a local speakeasy called The Nest. Many of Breeze’s idols—James Johnson, Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, and Willie the Lion—are in attendance. Breeze plays “Carolina Shout” to technical perfection, but is criticized by his idols for mimicking James Johnson’s style rather than performing as himself. Breeze replays the song, “unleash[ing] a torrent of feeling all over it” and the speakeasy explodes in stunned applause (49).

While working at Wilde Things, Ricki thinks about the mysterious Garden Gentleman. Ali invites Ricki to a community art party that will feature three of his pieces. During the evening, Ricki becomes increasingly irritated as Ali discusses her failing flower business with other patrons. Ricki meets an artist named Soraya who recognizes Ali from art class and makes a strange comment about being “polyamorous, too” (58). When Ali reveals his paintings—a nude portrait of Ricki and two sexually provocative nudes of other women—Ricki realizes that Ali is sleeping around and angrily ends their relationship.

While people bid for the two provocative portraits, no one shows interest in the painting of Ricki until a woman in her late 50s approaches and claims Ricki is “as lovely as [she] thought [she] would be” (60). The woman demands to purchase the painting for $5,000 dollars for her boss, who enjoys supporting young artists. The woman refuses to give out contact information, but Ricki’s persistence earns her a phone number.

Ricki’s lease specifies weekly teatimes with Della; in a matter of months, Ricki views Della as the grandmother Ricki never had. Della doesn’t often open up emotionally to others, but she sees herself in Ricki—a neglected kid desperate for a parental figure’s approval.

Ricki obsesses over her bizarre interaction with the Mysterious Benefactor’s assistant at the community art show. Over the next few days, she calls the phone number repeatedly, but no one answers. With Tuesday’s help, Ricki manages to track the phone number down to a building in the expensive New York neighborhood called Sugar Hill, which they stake out for the night in hopes of glimpsing the Mysterious Benefactor. After several hours, he emerges from his townhome to confront Ricki, revealing that the Mysterious Benefactor and the Garden Gentleman are one and the same. The man warns Ricki to leave him alone and begs her to “get out of Harlem, now, while [she] still can” (72). Ricki is stunned by the tenderness in his expression, but flees.

After nearly five years in New York, Breeze has become the bandleader of the Friday Knights—the headliners at Eden Lounge, a club owned by Mickey Macchione. Every night, Breeze heads home smelling like the night-blooming jasmine filling the vases on every table. Breeze’s band rehearsal is interrupted by Olive Randall, a reporter with the New York Times writing about Harlem nightlife. She interviews him about his rise to prominence; he has shadowed famous musicians such as Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, and has recently released his own recordings of songs titled “Hotcha Gotcha,” Midnight Jasmine,” and “Happy Sad.”

In contrast to Breeze, Sonny has fallen on hard times. After being caught dating a white woman, Sonny was beaten by a group of Irish men and unjustly jailed by racist cops. He has since become homeless due to his drug use disorder. After his Times interview, Breeze meets with Sonny behind the Eden Lounge to lend him money.