Summary
Harri drives his remote-controlled car in front of Jordan's house to make Jordan jealous as revenge for spitting on him. Back in the apartment, Miquita teaches Harri how to kiss. Though Harri doesn't enjoy it and struggles against her, Miquita sexually assaults Harri, forcing him to touch her inappropriately. Lydia defends Harri, shocking Miquita by saying, "at least my boyfriend's not a murderer." Miquita leaves, and Harri threatens to stab her if she tries to fight Lydia.
The text then switches to the pigeon narration: magpies attack the pigeon, who barely escapes.
Auntie Sonia comes to the Opoku family's apartment to disclose her plans to stow away on a boat; she decides to escape Julius after he broke her foot. When Auntie Sonia leaves, the family sees the word "DEAD" scratched into their door. Harri claims "probably a junkie" wrote the threat, though he knows Jordan did it.
While investigating the basketball court to try and commune with the dead boy's spirit, Harri remembers how the Dell Farm Crew attacked the dead boy after he made an impressive shot and started "fronting" with Killa. Then, the Dell Farm Crew shows up at the basketball court and demands Dean's money and sneakers. Dizzy realizes Harri is hiding the dead boy's wallet, and they burn the picture of the dead boy. When the gang moves in to kill Harri and Dean, Lydia calls the police and films the scene on her phone. She helps Harri and Dean escape to the library, where they send the video to Lydia's friend Abena.
All of Harri's classmates agree not to step on any cracks to ensure their summer vacation will be good. Connor Green steps on a crack intentionally because he doesn't believe in the spell. Then, Connor admits that he knows who the murderer is, saying he was riding past Chicken Joe's and saw Jermaine Bent (Killa) running away from the scene with the knife.
Harri does poorly playing "rounders" and decides to eat crabapples to get superpowers. Harri hides in the forest to eat them but feels sick after. He sits out the rest of the game. Then the children realize the playground is on fire. The neighbors watch the fire together, sharing information about who started it and why, until firefighters show up and quickly douse the flames.
Harri wins his school's race and feels like "the king," pleased with his skills and Poppy's praise. On the last day of school, Harri kisses Poppy goodbye and runs home through the rain. He expresses his love for the things he passes, like birds and trees. However, when Harri reaches the apartment stairwell, an unnamed killer, likely Jordan, stabs Harri and runs away.
As Harri dies alone in the stairwell, his pigeon appears to comfort him and show him to the afterlife. Harri's final thought is about Agnes, and he asks the pigeon to tell her a funny story about the plane.
Analysis
When the Dell Farm Crew moves in to attack Harri, he describes the atmosphere as "thick and full of killing thoughts." The text repeats the phrase "killing thoughts" several times to identify X-Fire's murderous intentions. By repeating the words "killing thoughts," the text affirms that Harri sees the Dell Farm Crew's violence as somewhat imaginary or inconceivable: a negative character trait that doesn't pose a real danger.
The text's constant thread of dramatic irony culminates when Harri reveals that he witnessed the Dell Farm Crew fight with the dead boy just before the murder. Harri does not make the connection between these two events, though he sensed that "somebody was going to get killed," to which he responds by running away.
The basketball court represents the intangible trauma the dead boy's murder left on Harri's community. Since the murder, the "basketball court is nearly always empty." Just as violence and danger increased in Harri's life, "somebody tore all the nets up and tried to set the posts on fire."
When the Dell Farm Crew sets fire to the playground, Harri realizes that "the war was here" because the smoky sky matches how Harri imagined war.
Harri remarks that "everybody went to watch the playground die." This statement comments on the city's incompetence when investigating the dead boy's murder and the community's pervasive feeling of helplessness in the face of gang violence. Just as Harri's mother watched news reports about children dying, the community watches the playground, a symbol of childhood, burn to the ground.
On the last day of school, Harri forgets his worries and enjoys the graduation traditions. For example, the Year 11 graduates write messages on one another's uniform shirts as "good luck to take on [their] journey to the world." Harri is particularly fond of this tradition and states that he can't wait to participate himself. This statement is bitterly ironic, as Harri says it mere hours before his death. Harri's innocent excitement about the frivolous tradition highlights the injustice of his death.
The text lists the different words students write on their classmates' shirts, from crude messages to signatures. Some notes are as complex as "God used to be my co-pilot but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him." Other messages are encouraging, like "LIVE YOUR DREAM." However, most words are insults, like "VIRGIN." These words and phrases represent the variety of ways the schoolchildren see themselves and one another. Just as Harri collects words and ideas in his lists and definitions, the other children negotiate complex lives and identities.
Harri's final moments recall his first run through the rain, which he dedicated to the dead boy. Running through the rain is an experience that makes Harri feel truly alive and joyful. Thus, Harri lets his guard down, allowing his killer to strike. The irony that Harri survives by maintaining constant vigilance, but can only find joy when he lets his guard down, is devasting.
As Harri dies, he tries and fails to remember Agnes's "tiny fat fingers and face." The novel concludes with the haunting final line, "all babies look the same." This brief sentence symbolically summarizes the dark message of the book: violence can happen to any child, and society fails by forgetting slain children and perpetuating the injustices that cause violence.
