The Men of Brewster Place

As Brewster Place’s super, Ben sees everyone come and go. He doesn’t get involved in anyone’s business, but he sometimes wonders about people’s actions, as with Eugene and Ceil. Eugene left Ceil and came back multiple times during the six years they spent in Brewster Place, and Ben wonders why. He figures, though, that “if Eugene wanted [him] or anybody else to know his business, he would bring it to [them]” (68).

Eugene tells Ceil that there is so much he wants her to know, starting with the fact that he did love her and their baby daughter, Serena. When she was born, he believed they’d be able to make it. He remembers the walks that he and Ceil took through nice neighborhoods, daydreaming about the house they would live in one day. However, as soon as they managed to save a bit of money, Eugene took half of it and vanished. Eugene and Ceil met when he was 14 and spent summers in Tennessee. When the summer ended, they became pen pals, and Ceil shared her dreams of seeing the world and being special. At 18, they married, and Eugene “proceeded slowly […] to ruin [her] life” (71).