Summary
Jerome comments that every time he sees a Black kid, he yells at them to be safe; they never hear him. Jerome wonders how anyone can be happy in his neighborhood, which is made dangerous by gangs, bullies, drive-bys, and cops with guns. Lately Jerome has been lingering on his street. He wishes he could do what he used to do when alive. He reflects that Carlos was trying to make him happy, and he was happy for a bit. Even though it didn’t last long, it was nice to have a friend.
Jerome visits Carlos’s bedroom. There are drawings and photos related to Jerome and his death, like a memory altar. Jerome feels bad that Carlos doesn’t have any toys or books. He wishes he could give Carlos posters from his old bedroom. Suddenly Carlos senses Jerome’s presence and reaches out his hand. He says, “You forgive me?” Just then, Carlos’s Papi enters the room and asks if Carlos is still upset about Jerome. Carlos tells his father the whole story. Papi says he shouldn’t have to go to school scared. He tells Carlos that it could have been him. Carlos gasps. Carlos says he has to tell Jerome’s family. Carlos’s father says they’ll feel sad, but they’ll understand. Carlos says he wants to honor Jerome for the Day of the Dead.
When Carlos arrives at Jerome’s apartment, Kim rushes to ask if Carlos wants help telling Grandma. After being given a cookie, Carlos says that he gave the toy gun to Jerome because he wanted Jerome to have some fun. He apologizes while crying. Grandma sniffs and says she’s sorry she let Jerome play—she should’ve made him do homework. She knew he was up to something, but she was happy to let him be a bit naughty. Grandma says they can’t undo wrong; they can only do their best to make things right. Jerome is reassured to know the three of them—Grandma, Kim, and Carlos—will help make Ma and Pa feel better. Jerome says there’s one more thing he has to do.
It bothers Jerome to know Sarah isn’t speaking to her dad. All the pink bedding and toys she used to have are in the trash; now she has white sheets and spends hours on her computer. Sarah tells Jerome she is making a website called End Racism, Injustice. She talks about how Black people are shot by police two and half times more than white people, but they’re only thirteen percent of the population. She says that in 2015, over one thousand unarmed Black people were killed. Her website links to stories, including Emmett Till’s and Jerome’s. Sarah says she is helping Jerome, but he doesn’t want to be linked to. She says her father is a racist; Jerome says he made a mistake. Jerome asks if Sarah can help her father not to be afraid of Black boys. Jerome says it matters that she sees him and can share his story. Sarah says, “If people know more about other people, maybe they won’t be scared?”
Jerome comments that Emmett’s killers never believed they did wrong, and an all-white jury found them innocent. Jerome wonders if it is progress that Moore isn’t celebrating despite not having to face charges. Jerome imagines Sarah growing up to write books and protest for change, teaching people how to see other people. They say goodbye to each other. Jerome comments that it is okay that Sarah is still troubled, because it’s how she helps herself and the world.
Jerome watches Sarah go down to her dad, who is on the couch. They hug and he kisses her head. She asks him to help her with her project. He says, “About the young man I killed?” She says it’s about others who have also been killed because of prejudice. He holds her tight and says he’ll help. She says she loves him. Jerome comments that that’s what he needed to hear.
On November 1, the Day of the Dead, the Rodríguezes and Jerome’s family have a picnic on Jerome’s grave. They decorate his tombstone and speak to him. Carlos says it’s Jerome’s day to play and he won’t ever forget him. Carlos presents Grandma with a picture of Jerome as a Day of the Dead–style skeleton. He explains that, in Mexican culture, the designs aren’t meant to be frightening, and the skull pictures celebrate their loved ones.
Thousands of ghost boys arrive at the cemetery. Emmett appears and tells Jerome they’re all remembered, and that one day the murders will stop. Jerome realizes the ghost boys are trying to change the world; that’s why they haven’t said goodbye. Each of them has someone who sees them and who they talk to. Emmett says the person who saw him was Thurgood Marshall, a lawyer at his killer’s trial who won civil rights battles and became a judge. Emmett says the ghost boys will stick together until skin color doesn’t matter and there is peace.
Returning to “that day”—the day of his killing—Jerome is running around and breathing freely, fighting pretend bad guys. He feels like he’s inside a first-person shooter video game. He plays make-believe, shooting imagined enemies. He wishes Carlos were there to play with him; eventually Jerome decides it is time to go home. Out of the corner of his eye, Jerome sees a car cruising toward him. He turns to run away. Pow. Pow. The brakes screech as Jerome falls flat, his blood darkening the snow and soil of Green Acres. He gurgles, “Toy.” It feels like two “fire sticks” are inside him, searing his right shoulder and lower back. He wants a doctor. Someone to help him or a face to see. Ma. Grandma. He closes his eyes and feels his spirit rise.
In the last chapter, Jerome delivers his “last words.” He asks the living who have heard his tale and borne witness to make the world better. He says not to let anyone tell the same story again. He signs off with, “Peace out. —Ghost boy.”
Analysis
Having understood his role as a storyteller and symbol of racial injustice in the afterlife, Jerome oversees the people he cares about, hoping for them to move on as he has. Worried over Carlos’s lack of sleep, Jerome is pleased to see his friend confess to his father about the toy gun and resolve to offer support to the Rogers family by sharing with them the Day of the Dead tradition of honoring the dead.
At Jerome’s family’s apartment, Carlos takes responsibility for his part in Jerome’s killing, admitting to Grandma that he insisted Jerome take the toy gun to play with. Kim too confesses to having known about the gun. In an instance of situational irony, Grandma responds with her own regret: she knew Jerome was up to something naughty that afternoon, but she didn’t want to spoil his fun by making him do chores or homework like usual. Grandma leaves the children with the optimistic message that while people can’t undo their mistakes, they can balance past wrongs by doing right in the future.
Jerome’s last stop is Sarah’s house. As a symbol of her loss of innocence, Sarah throws away all the childish possessions in her room; having learned about the unfair status quo, Sarah sheds her naivety and devotes her time to creating a website that raises awareness about deaths caused by systemic racism. Initially unsure why Sarah could “see” him, Jerome now knows that it is necessary for the living to learn about victims of racial prejudice in order to achieve a world in which people aren’t needlessly killed.
But while Jerome sees it as positive that she is troubled by the way things are and is empowered to make a change, he also knows that it isn’t helping anything for Sarah to shut out her father. After speaking with Jerome, Sarah goes to her father and invites him into the conversation for reform by asking him to help her with her social justice activism. Rather than act defensively when Sarah suggests that Jerome was killed because of prejudice, Moore embraces his daughter and agrees to take part in her project. In this way, Rhodes shows how social progress necessitates communication across differences of opinion and experience to bring about a more equitable world.
The themes of support and honoring the dead arise with the scene at the cemetery. To show the Rogers family that mourning need not comprise misery and sorrow, Carlos orchestrates a Day of the Dead picnic on Jerome’s grave. The festivities include skeleton renderings of Jerome and decorating his tombstone. This intimacy with dead loved ones brings the Rogers family closer to Jerome’s spirit, which, unbeknownst to them, has in fact been nearby all along.
The novel ends with Jerome finally narrating his own first-person account of his death. Having taken to his role as a storyteller in the afterlife, Jerome is ready to recount the details. Innocently playing make-believe, Jerome had no idea the car speeding toward him was a police cruiser. His natural instinct was to run, but even the fact that his back was turned made no difference to the officer. Bearing witness just as Emmett Till taught him, Jerome shares this traumatic story to educate the reader and make them understand the importance of contributing to a world in which a similar event never happens again.
