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Daddy Clidell is Vivan’s second husband and the only man Maya sees as a true father figure in her life. After Maya and Bailey move to San Francisco with their mother, Daddy Clidell marries Vivian and his presence fills Maya’s heart with unexpected admiration and respect. Raised in a Texan farm family, Daddy Clidell has only three years of formal education but becomes an honored member of his community and makes his living from real estate ventures. Maya is initially skeptical of another man in her mother’s sequence of significant others, but his unforced humility balanced with intelligence and wit win him favor in Maya’s eyes. Always dressed in well-tailored suits, he teaches Maya how to play cards and surrounds her with his friends and their stories of cunning schemes that teeter on the edge of legality. However, Daddy Clidell, his friends, and their anecdotes reveal to Maya deeper nuances in the landscape of right and wrong when it comes to navigating American society as a Black person. Daddy Clidell is a healing and inspiring figure for Maya, proudly allowing anyone to assume she is his daughter. He is equally strong and tender, a duality rare in most of the men Maya has come across in her life. He is resonant of San Francisco as a whole, a place where Maya begins to realize many of her dreams and grasp a firm sense of her worldview, values, ethics, and ambitions.
