After Saturday Nite Comes Sunday by Sonia Sanchez

First published: 1971

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of work: April in the late 1960's

Locale: Indianapolis

Principal Characters:

• Sandy, the protagonist, a single black mother with twin baby boys, who lives with Winston
• Winston, the antihero, a thirty-eight-year-old unemployed black man, a former convict, and a heroin addict
• Anthony Smith, the antagonist, a middle-aged white drug dealer

The Story

As the story opens, Sandy has gone indignantly to the bank to correct what she believes to be a bank error showing her checking account to be three hundred dollars overdrawn. To her humiliation, the bank officer confronts her with five checks—all bearing the signature of Winston, the man with whom she lives. She reacts to the officer's condemning stare with a stupor of silence and immobility, so that someone must be called to drive her home. Ironically, Anthony Smith, Winston's drug connection, arrives and Sandy rides silently home while contemplating the first spring with Winston, wondering "if it wud be beautiful."

Amid Sandy's own despairing confusion and Winston's crying, he confesses that "I'm hooked again on stuff." Having been first addicted at seventeen, he explains that he realizes that he "shouldn't have done that" this time: He has used heroin with his friends from prison because he felt sorry for them and because he had wanted to help them overcome their self-hatred and their addiction. He claims, however, that he has not been addicted long and that he will withdraw from the habit the next day, on Saturday. Swearing that he loves Sandy and her children, Winston begs her forgiveness and promises to stop hitting her, to get a job, and to spend more time at home.

Sandy's first response is to ask about the welfare of her children, but she stutters so badly that she must resort to writing Winston a note; learning that her babies are asleep, Sandy writes that she is tired, has a headache, and wants only to sleep. As Winston leaves to get sleeping pills for her and for himself (to use in his withdrawal the next day), Sandy drifts off to sleep. When she awakes, it is already dark and Winston has returned but, instead of sleeping pills, he has brought her a morphine tablet, and she realizes that he is high again. While Winston explains alternative ways in which Sandy can use the tablet, she sees his needles and blood-soaked cotton.

Again Sandy attempts to speak, only to suffer once more her childhood malady of extreme stuttering. She writes another note, demanding that Winston throw away the tablet and promising to help him through the withdrawal. He reads her note meekly, and she hears the toilet flush before he returns with two cold beers. Believing that Winston has resigned himself to the difficult struggle of withdrawal, Sandy hears a cry upstairs and feeds the twins their bottles.

When she finishes, Winston is in the bathroom, but he will not permit her to enter. A half hour later, he comes out, high again. Sandy, out of sorrow and desperation, tries to make love with him. Winston, however, cannot perform because of the drug's effects; Sandy feels guilty and ashamed, "as if she had made him do something wrong." Still unable to enunciate clearly, she listens as Winston tells her that she is "unlucky," having lost her husband to "a rich/wite/woman" and now having a "junkie" as an inept lover. Before they slip into an uneasy sleep, Winston once again proclaims his love and begs Sandy for help.

When Winston awakes the next morning, he kisses Sandy in the kitchen, where she is feeding the boys, and she watches him go outside and throw away the envelope containing his drug apparatus. In order to be with Winston throughout most of the day, Sandy has arranged for a baby-sitter, so that they can go to the country. The car will not start, however, and Winston is too weak from the initial withdrawal to push it to a service station for help in starting it. Instead, they walk to a park, where Winston's attention and their horseplay suggest to Sandy that he will finally conquer his addiction. When he grows too weak from the progressing withdrawal to continue their play, she helps him walk home.

After Sandy has cooked supper, she checks upstairs on Winston, who is now bedridden, engulfed in his "Saturday/nite/pain." Proud of his struggle, she massages him and brings sherry to ease the pain; as he thanks her, she says "any ol time, man" and realizes that she has not stuttered for the first time in twenty-four hours. Having fed the babies, she returns to check on Winston, whose condition has deteriorated to nausea and chills. Sandy adds an extra blanket and, taking off her clothes, tries to warm him with her body. Fearful and crying, she is unsure how to comfort Winston, so she sings to him as if he were a child. Having quieted him, Sandy succumbs to her own exhaustion, falling asleep while calling his name as he gets up to regurgitate in the bathroom.

When one of the babies wakes her, it is very early Sunday morning. While she hands the baby his bottle of milk, Sandy realizes that the house is dark and silent. Frantically, she turns on the lights to find an empty bed and, downstairs, her open purse with an empty wallet. Knowing that Winston has failed, she walks out on the porch and, despite her nakedness, stares for a moment at the empty street. Vulnerable but strengthened by the ordeal, Sandy returns to the children.