Summary
On Thursday morning, Quinn remembers his father’s funeral and how Paul helped him with his suit; that day, Paul made sure Quinn knew he’d be there for him. With a start, Quinn realizes that when Paul made that promise, he was not much older than Quinn is now. Quinn wonders what happened to Paul and how he could have changed so much. Quinn contemplates how historic the moment in which he’s living is, and decides to wear a shirt to school that says “I’m marching. Are you?” The reactions to Quinn’s shirt are mixed, but plenty of students of all races respond positively his shirt. Quinn’s friend Dwyer is not one of them. He pulls Quinn aside, angry at Quinn for breaking their coach’s rule about not getting involved.
At basketball practice, the players are working on a new play, specifically designed for English. Their coach names it “Fist,” but during the practice, English raises his fist in the air and says Rashad’s name. While playing, Guzzo intentionally elbows Quinn in the face, though he says it was an accident. At the end of practice, Quinn and English agree that they should call the new play “Rashad” instead of “Fist;” they smile and slap hands. After practice, Coach Carney pulls Quinn aside. He gestures at Quinn’s shirt and tells Quinn that he needs to stop getting involved: there is too much riding on this basketball season and Quinn needs to stay focused. When Quinn heads outside, Guzzo is waiting for him. Guzzo punches Quinn twice, knocking him to the ground. Guzzo is yelling; he hovers over Quinn, calling him names and saying that he’s “jumping on the Rashad bandwagon” because it’s easy to do. Guzzo says Jill is becoming crazy and radical and Guzzo accuses Quinn of becoming the same way. Coach Carney calls Quinn’s mom to explain what happened at practice, and she talks to Quinn when he gets home. She believes Quinn is making a mistake by getting involved because it “isn’t his fight.” She forbids him from going to the protest and implores him to consider what his father would say if he were alive. Quinn responds that his father always stood up for what he believed in.
Rashad’s mother arrives at the hospital with a lawyer, Ms. Whitmeyer, who is going to help the family file a lawsuit against Paul Galluzzo. After hearing his account of events, and learning that the woman from the store will testify, she says the case should be an easy one to win. Rashad remains doubtful. On Thursday morning, the doctor informs Rashad that since the internal bleeding has subsided, he will be discharged. Relieved to be heading home, Rashad starts to get dressed and then realizes the only clothes he has are those from his arrest on Friday. They’re torn, dirty, and covered in blood. He decides to throw the clothes in the trash rather than wear them. A few hours later, Rashad leaves the hospital in clean clothes that his mother brought him. Before he leaves, he says goodbye to Clarissa and gives her his drawing as thanks for taking such good care of him.
At home, Rashad goes on the internet and reads the online discussion of #RashadIsAbsentAgainToday. The discussion covers both sides of the debate. People have posted photos of Rashad and information about his father; some have called him a dirty cop. Looking up Darnell, now in a wheelchair, Rashad considers that the protest is for him too. Spoony and Rashad’s friends come over for pizza, and although Rashad doesn’t know Quinn, English shares how Quinn had a change of heart and went from defending Paul to supporting Rashad. The discussion moves to the protest scheduled for the following day. English and Shannon are going, knowing they will miss basketball practice. Rashad’s mother also promises to come, despite her previous reservations. Spoony suggests they have a die-in once they get to the police station, lying down on the ground as a form of protest. Spoony pulls out a list of names to read out loud while they’re on the ground.
On Friday, Quinn wakes up extremely nervous. Pushing his feelings aside, he calls the police department to make a statement about what he witnessed the previous week. The officer seems uninterested, saying they already have statements about what happened outside of Jerry’s, but Quinn insists. On the way to school, Quinn sees police in military-style tanks making their way down the street. As the tanks pass the school, students yell, “This is what a police state looks like!” Quinn is shaken by the sight of the tanks, doubting whether it’s safe to go to the protest, but he talks to Jill, who convinces him not to lose his nerve. They agree to go together. At the end of the school day, students pour out of the school and make their way to Jerry’s Corner Mart, where the protest is set to start. Quinn sees thousands of people, and thousands of police officers. The police have blocked off the side streets along the protest route. There’s a row of police tanks, and ranks of police in military gear with automatic rifles and tear gas. With Jill at his side, Quinn starts filming the scene and narrates for his brother, Willy. Quinn says that their mother always told them to take responsibility and live up to the values for which their father died, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. As the protest starts, everyone begins the chant, “Spring-field PD, we don’t want brutality!” Jill and Quinn make their way towards the front, where Rashad is with his friends and family, leading the march. As they reach the police station, people begin to lie down on the ground, and a woman with a microphone begins reciting a list of names. Quinn realizes they’re naming unarmed Black men and women who had been killed by police in the last year.
Rashad wakes up the day of the protest with a sick stomach. His mother says Rashad’s father gets the same way when he’s nervous and upset. When Rashad asks if his father is coming to the protest, his mother is unsure. She says his father could not sleep last night. She found him outside Rashad’s room watching him, but in the morning his father left for work as usual. Before leaving for the protest with his mother, Spoony, and Berry, Rashad takes the bandage off his face, revealing his swollen, half-healed nose. Moving through the crowd, they meet up with Carlos, English, and Shannon. The crowd is diverse, with people of different races and ages coming out to support the cause. Rashad recognizes many familiar faces in the crowd and finds their support overwhelming. Rashad, Spoony, Carlos, English, Berry, and Shannon all lead the protest. When they reach the police station, Rashad is shocked to see his father waiting to join them. Rashad’s father makes his way into the crowd, hugging Rashad and locking arms. Spoony and Berry lie down on the ground and everyone in the crowd follows suit. Berry begins reading names into the microphone: Sean Bell, Rekia Boyd, Tamir Rice, and the list goes on. In a call-and-response, the crowd shouts “Absent again today.” Listening to the names, tears flow down Rashad’s cheeks.
The last chapter is narrated by Quinn and Rashad and written in a verse format, alternating between their two perspectives. While they are lying on the sidewalk at the protest, Rashad and Quinn lock eyes. Quinn knows immediately who Rashad is, but Rashad does not recognize Quinn. Quinn looks into Rashad’s eyes, wanting to see him on a deeper level, the way he was not ready to a week before. Listening to the names, Rashad feels anger, sadness, and pride. Pride that he is there to represent all those Black youth who faced police brutality and racism and aren’t able to be there. In the epilogue, “Zoom Out” describes the die-in, the image of the plaza flooded with bodies lying down as the names are read off, and two boys in the center, an arm’s length away from each other.
Analysis
The theme of father-son relationships resurfaces as Quinn thinks back on his father’s funeral. Paul stepped in when Quinn lost his father, not to replace him, but to become an older male role model for Quinn. Their closeness at that moment contrasts with the current rupture in their relationship. Quinn wants to be on the right side of history, to take a stand for all the “black American boys [lying] in the streets.” The T-shirt he wears to school openly declares his support of the protest and invites others to join in. Dwyer does not appreciate the gesture. He’s preoccupied with the basketball season and making a good impression on university scouts; he is angry at Quinn for jeopardizing that. A week ago, Dwyer and Quinn shared the same priorities. Their contrasting priorities in this moment show how much Quinn has grown.
Quinn continues to show his teammates that he’s in solidarity with Rashad, suggesting to English that they should name one of their basketball plays after Rashad. Quinn’s actions anger Guzzo, who violently lashes out at Quinn during and after practice. People in Quinn’s life—notably, all of them are white—don’t understand the shift in his behavior. Quinn receives criticism from his friends, his coach, and his mother. All warn him to stop getting involved in something that doesn’t concern him. Through their reactions, the authors explore how common white denial and defensiveness is around the topic of racism. His mother calls Quinn selfish for hurting the Galluzzos and dragging his family into the conflict. She’s sensitive to the divisions that the public debate is causing and doesn’t want her family involved. When she invokes his father’s memory, Quinn realizes that she is mentioning his father to persuade Quinn to be loyal to the Galluzzos. Quinn takes a different lesson from his father’s life: to stand up for what he believes in.
Rashad is exhausted after hearing his father’s revelation, but shares his account with the lawyer who his mother brings to see him. While the lawyer is optimistic, Rashad thinks of all the police officers who have been charged with excessive force and avoided punishment. It’s not until Rashad gets home from the hospital that he’s able to appreciate how widely his story has spread. He catches up, reading through comments that demonstrate the wide debate raging across the country; both at school and on the internet, everyone has picked a side. People have found photos of him from social media and used them to bolster their arguments for or against his innocence. The most hurtful comments are about his father. When Rashad has dinner with his friends and family they all commit to going with him to the protest, but the one person conspicuously absent is his father. Earlier in the week, English and Shannon felt constrained by Coach Carney’s ban on getting involved in Rashad’s case, but the upswell of support from students at school has given them the conviction to defy their coach.
Quinn is terrified to call the police and tell them what he witnessed, yet he forces himself to follow through with his promise. Although the police don’t end up needing his statement, symbolically it’s important for Quinn to make amends for what he now views as running away from his responsibility. When Quinn sees the police tanks rolling down the street, for the first time he fears law enforcement and sees that their tactics of militarization and intimidation are not subtle, but glaringly obvious. Jill reminds him that people of color live in daily fear of the police; she asserts that if she has to face her fear of them for one day to stand in solidarity with communities of color, she will. What Quinn and Jill see when making their way to the protest is an antidote for political division. Thousands of people of all races and ages have come together in a show of unity to denounce the racism and police brutality inflicted upon their communities. The protest is a moment of catharsis for the protagonists in the novel: for Quinn to make amends and begin to forge a new relationship with the memory of his father, and for Rashad to take back his power and feel the support of his community around him.
The revelation on the morning of the protest that Rashad’s father’s nerves also manifest in his stomach prompts Rashad to reconsider the events of the previous days. Outwardly, his father was skeptical of Rashad, never openly criticizing the police officer for hurting him, but Rashad wonders if his father’s upset stomach earlier in the week was a manifestation of his feelings. Perhaps he really was distressed by the pain Rashad went through at the hands of an officer, but just couldn’t say it out loud. Before going to the protest, Rashad chooses to take off his bandages. Though people have been talking about Rashad all week, most have yet to see him. He chooses for them to see all of him: the broken nose, his face permanently changed by the ordeal he went through. It’s a statement of the emotional and physical cost of police violence, and the ways it permanently changes individuals and communities.
At the protest, Rashad is surrounded by the support of family and friends. There’s excitement, and he feels the group’s power and determination as they stand up against the police. His father surprises all of them when he shows up to join the protest. Throughout the novel, Rashad has felt misunderstood and disappointed by his father’s reactions, yet in joining the protest his father is able to show his support even if he can’t verbalize it. The decision to read off names of Black victims of police brutality is a reminder that the fight extends beyond one individual. It is a symbol for all people of color who experience violence at the hands of law enforcement, who are stereotyped and policed for simply being themselves.
As he lies on the ground with other protestors, Quinn looks for Rashad. For the first time in the novel, they meet eye to eye. Without speaking, they read one another. Side-by-side, they listen to the list of Black youth who died at the hands of police, each lost in their own thoughts. For Quinn, it’s a moment to really see Rashad and recognize that Rashad is someone who, without realizing it, has fundamentally changed Quinn. For Rashad, his story has come full circle. At the start of the book, he lies on the sidewalk, bleeding, but this time the experience is healing. He’s surrounded by community, as he puts his voice and body on the line to denounce injustice and take back his power. The shift to a joint narration parallels the joining of their two perspectives and races. Their narration is portrayed side by side on the page, just as their bodies lie side by side on the cement. This is the last image of the novel, Rashad and Quinn lying side by side amid a sea of people. It is an image of hope that by coming together as a community, change is possible.
