Willa is serious about school while her sister Futila makes poor choices. Willa Mays knows she wants to do more than marry a boy from her small hometown. She plays on her high schools basketball team has dreams of leaving as soon as she is able. She works hard to earn a scholarship for college. Her father can't afford to send her so she knows she will have to get their on her grades.
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Her sister Futila is more interested in boys than books and the girl's grandmother instills values and positive living creed into her granddaughters on a daily basis. The girls are friends with Martha a Jewish girl. Mrs. Mays cooks for Martha and helps out around the girl's house after her mother dies. Martha knows she is going to college and after high school she is on her way. She invites Willa to join her. She will have to help around the house but she will be able to start at a community college and with her grades Martha doesn't foresee any reason her friend won't earn a full scholarship transferable to the university.
Futila fell for Dante he was cute and on the basketball team. At sixteen, she didn't take her time they rushed into sex and he dropped her after pledging his love. Dante graduated and went three hundred miles away to business school. When he came home for visits Futila settled for the small piece of Dante he was willing to share.
Willa worked hard in school earning a masters degree. She and Martha get accepted for a job in Egypt. The two girls who had studied and supported each other through lean times were about to get it in.
Futila finds out she is pregnant. It's Dante's baby, although he was her first he wasn't her only. She is ecstatic about the news. Dante, not so much. He screams over the phone that he won't marry her, doesn't want a baby and that she is on her own.
His parents force him to marry Futia and they have a second baby. Dante goes into business for himself, hangs out at his office, and rarely comes home for dinner. Futila knows he is cheating but can't bring herself to leave him.
Meanwhile, Willa and Martha both earn doctoral degrees in bio-chemistry. Willa marries for love and brings her anthropologist husband home with her from New York to visit her family. Futila is jealous and because of Willa's hard earned success and luck in fining an attentive husband who loves her.
Dante wasn't happy either he was just going through the motions sex with different people and a wife that wouldn't divorce him. His money and cars meant nothing because he was bankrupt morally. From the time that he and Futila were both virgins and he begged her for oral sex they kept taking from each other without loving one another. He blamed her for giving him what he asked for knowing that she was deeper into things than he was. In truth, they used each other and that can only lead to bad news down the road.
Futila was looking for Dante's money and status to validate her. She didn't care enough about herself to complete high school. She was bitter over being cheated on and in the end her children suffer for her selfishness.
Seeing her sister's success added salt to an open wound. Futila did not make good choices.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked this story because it shows what you can do if you set goals and work towards achieving them.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Willa earned her doctoral degree.
Opinion about the main character:
I disliked that Futila refused to make a well thought out choice.
