A Duet For Home

After school, Tyrell and Jeremiah walk home together. Tyrell is upset because Ms. Gruber, the English teacher, kept asking Tyrell pointed questions about the reading assignment for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, implying that he did not complete the assignment.

Tyrell notices Jeremiah’s puffy coat, which his mom gave him for his birthday last month. Tyrell’s mom didn’t give him anything for his birthday, but Marcus gave watches to Tyrell and Jeremiah. Ms. Gonzalez also held a lasagna dinner, and Jeremiah gave Tyrell a framed picture of the two of them laughing in front of Huey House.

Tyrell and Jeremiah eat lime jellybeans together. A few months ago, the shelter received a “random” donation of jellybeans, and Ms. MacMillan locked them in her closet. However, Jeremiah picked the lock, and the boys “relocated” the candy to a different hiding place. They now use the candy to bribe staff members.

The bus goes through the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn before dropping off June and Maybelle, the last people on the bus, at their school in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan. Despite leaving Huey House at 5:30 am, the sisters are 34 minutes late. June doesn’t tell her teachers or classmates about the eviction. Because she does not want to explain why she didn’t bring her lunch today, June spends the lunch period in the library, reading the novel A Long Walk to Water (2010).

Heading back to class, June spots Henrietta. She is a year older than June and is the best violinist in the school. Henrietta plays in the school orchestra, and June plans to audition for the orchestra because of Henrietta’s example.

After school, June and Maybelle stay in the bathroom until June’s friends leave. When they finally board the bus, Charlie tells them that he was just about to leave. Maybelle wants to visit the animal shelter, but they don’t have time. On the ride back to Huey House, Maybelle eats a lot of Lulu’s candy. Back at Huey House, Lulu brings June to Ms. Gonzalez’s office. Jeremiah and his mother are there, and she hears Ms. Gonzalez tell them that they can move in a week. Jeremiah is anxious, and he wants to tell Tyrell about the move himself.

Tyrell tries to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in his room, but his mother is listening to loud music. He asks her to turn it down, but his mother wants to dance with him. Ms. MacMillan bangs on the door and lectures Tyrell’s mother about the noise. Tyrell sneaks out, encounters Maria, and then goes out a door connected to an alarm.

Tyrell remembers other inconsiderate moments involving his mother. When he and his siblings were watching Toy Story, she changed the channel to watch her dance show instead. After Ms. Gonzalez got Tyrell’s mother a job, the fast food chain fired her for constantly complaining about the uniforms and the employee bathrooms.

June’s family meets with Ms. Gonzalez, and June notices a board filled with sticky notes about food. She asks June what the family’s favorite food is. She also asks about their mother’s work, their healthcare, and their father. Ms. Gonzalez notices the quiet Mrs. Yang and offers to arrange for a Cantonese translator at their next meeting, but June declines the offer.

The door to the courtyard isn’t attached to an alarm. In the courtyard, Tyrell sees Marcus playing his djembe drum. Tyrell is in a bad mood. He wants to tell Marcus about his mother and about the cranberry juice prank, but Marcus hears Ms. MacMillan’s voice and quickly hides Tyrell and the drum.

Ms. MacMillan greets Marcus. She is accompanied by a man from HQ—the company that operates four shelters, including Huey House. The man has a “slick voice” and applauds the clean courtyard. Next month, he wants to put trailers in the courtyard so that families can live in them. He also wants Ms. MacMillan to push Ms. Gonzalez to move the current families out within 90 days so that the company can receive the financial bonuses associated with HSP. If Ms. Gonzalez will not move the families out quicker, he urges Ms. MacMillan to hire someone who will.

Ms. Gonazlez accompanies Maybelle to the after-school room, where there is a three-legged hamster named Churro. Ms. MacMillan doesn’t know about the hamster because she never enters the after-school room. Meanwhile, Lulu introduces June to her family. Lulu’s mother touches June’s hair. She wants to practice hairstyling on June, but June is uncomfortable with the woman’s touch and quickly excuses herself.

Tyrell hears Marcus and Ms. Gonzalez discussing the courtyard interaction. Ms. Gonazlez says that moving people out within 90 days isn’t in the residents’ best interests, but because the mayor is facing reelection, she wants to decrease the number of unhoused people even if it means moving them to precarious places like hazardous hotels. Tyrell finds Jeremiah and tells him about HQ’s plans. Jeremiah and Tyrell vow to enter Ms. MacMillan’s office and find more information.

In the cafeteria, Maybelle tells June about feeding Churro some sunflower seeds. When Maybelle realizes that Mamo has served her meat, she starts crying. Lulu’s mother comforts Maybelle, and June convinces Mamo to serve Maybelle some vegetables and bread rolls, using a utensil that hasn’t touched meat. (Maybelle became a vegetarian when she was five and discovered that chicken nuggets come from the same animals she saw hatching in an incubator at the science museum.) Now, after dinner, June and Maybelle return to their rooms, and June discovers her viola on her bed.

Tyrell and Jeremiah finally find June and apologize for the cranberry juice incident. They offer her some lime jellybeans, and they all discuss their backgrounds. June’s parents are Chinese, but she was born in America, so she is Chinese American. Tyrell’s father is Chinese, so he is part Chinese.

Tyrell wants to know what June has in her backpack. After further prodding, June reveals her viola, and she explains the difference between it and a violin. June wants to know where she can practice her viola without Ms. MacMillan catching her. Tyrell promises to help her find a safe place if June lets him play her viola.

June doesn’t want Tyrell to touch the viola, but she agrees and follows Tyrell and Jeremiah. Jeremiah gives a lime jellybean to Humberto, a maintenance man, and Humberto lets them pass through the kitchen and into the basement. Jeremiah picks the lock to the door labeled with a warning sign that reads “Danger” and “Keep Out.”

June learns that Huey House used to be a tuberculosis hospital. The room that they have entered was once the chapel. Because MacMillan worries about germs, she boarded the area up when the shelter was renovated.

June has played the viola since she was four, and she doesn’t let her mother or Maybelle touch it. Now, June plays “Viola Concerto in G Major,” which was written by the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann. Tyrell wishes that June would play longer, but it’s already eight o’clock, so he goes to the alcove to hear the next-door neighbor, Domenika, play the violin. Jeremiah stays in the chapel and completes his homework.

June practices playing the viola for an hour before the curfew forces her to stop. She wants to talk to Jeremiah about his impending move, but he doesn’t look like he wants to discuss it.

In their room, Mrs. Yang acts as though June and Maybelle don’t exist. June plays Johannes Brahms’s “Lullaby” softly for Maybelle. Listening to Maybelle’s snores, June misses the sounds of Chinatown. She wonders how long she will be at Huey House.