Toni Morrison's short story "Recitatif" outlines the meetings of Roberta and Twyla. First as eight-year-olds in a shelter, then as teens in a gas station, then as adults in a grocery store, then as adults at a school, and finally in a diner.

The word recitatif is a French style of performance. It combines music and speech and is often used as a narrative interlude in operas and oratories. It is also called recitative and resembles speech more than formal music.

"Recitatif" is the perfect title for this story, because each meeting between the two girls is like an interlude in Twyla's life.

In this story, we only meet Twyla in the moments where she runs into Roberta. We get some glimpses of her life:

I was working behind the counter at the Howard Johnson's on the Thruway just before the Kingston exit. Not a bad job. Kind of a long ride from Newburgh, but okay once I got there. Mine was the second night shift-eleven to seven.

And:

It railed my cart along the aisle tossing in smoked oysters and Robert's sauce and things I knew would sit in my cupboard for years. Only when I found some Klondike ice cream bars did I feel less guilty about spending James's fireman's salary so foolishly.

While we learn about her husband, her family, and her son, they aren't main characters in the story. The story is about the interludes—the meetings between Roberta and Twyla that bring Twyla back to her childhood at St. Bonny's.

The story is written as prose. At first reading, it's difficult to see where the story incorporates song. However, there's a rhythm to the story that resembles a song or dance.

The girls are friends at first.

When they next meet, there is iciness and disconnection.

Their third meetings brings them closer again; there is laughter.

The forth meeting is cruel: they move away again, even the car rocks.

This meeting extends with daily protests. They march in lines, and Twyla fights her way through the line to make sure she is always facing Roberta.

Their final meeting brings them close again. They aren't friends, but there is a shared understanding.

Throughout the story we see this back and forth. It isn't a joyful or beautiful song, but there is movement and rhythm as we read through these interludes and watch these two girls struggle to find connection and identity.