Ghost Boys

Later that day, Jerome confirms that Sarah can see the other ghost boy. Jerome grows angry when he realizes Officer Moore is on paid leave, yet another confirmation that the privileged life Sarah and her family lead is part of a “fantasy world” (90). The reality of the Rogers family is one of poverty and scrambling when emergencies arise. The differences between their childhoods and circumstances make Jerome angry, especially because he will never get to escape his oppressive childhood by achieving his dream of becoming a professional athlete.

Jerome is looking at Sarah’s book collection (which includes Peter Pan, the fantasy story of a White boy who never grows up) when the other ghost boy joins them. The ghost boy reveals that he is Emmett Till and then chides Jerome for continuing to be angry at Sarah by pointing out that Sarah can change. Emmett’s role is to help her and Jerome change. Emmett reveals an almost countless number of murdered Black boys hovering just outside the window. Like Peter Pan, they will never grow up. The sight saddens Sarah, while the idea that the murder of a Black boy can occur blocks from a home in Chicago today or in the 1950s in the South overwhelms Jerome to the point that he disappears again.

In his in-between state, Jerome considers what is real and what is not. Reality should include hitting milestones and growing up to get a job, although growing up to be the president or a professional basketball player is “a fantasy” (99). When Jerome comes back, he is on the church steps with Emmett, and the reality of being dead comes down on him hard.

Emmett shares his own dreams and reality with Jerome, and they realize that their dreams of being professional athletes are similar. Chicago, Emmett’s hometown, is different because it is more violent now than it was in the 1950s when Emmett lived there. Emmett tells Jerome that his mother, like Grandma Rogers, still required him to be careful outside the house. There were other dangers and difficulties—polio, an illness that paralyzed children, was around in the 1950s. Emmett shares that he has a speech impediment that made him whistle when he attempted to pronounce words that started with “w.”

The mood shifts so much that it is clear to Jerome that Emmett wants to share his story. Emmett insists that Jerome isn’t ready for this story, however. He tells Jerome that Sarah’s ability to see Jerome means there is still a task Jerome must complete to help Sarah.

Jerome watches the drama unfolding around the preliminary hearing later that day. His family is grieving and angry, while the judge shows almost no reaction to the proceedings. Outside the courtroom, protestors hold signs and chant Black Lives Matter slogans, while the police, some of them mounted, stand by as the national news captures it all. Protestors are also outside Sarah’s home, where Jerome sits with her, and the two talk about Emmett’s belief that the two children must help each other somehow.

During one of these conversations, Sarah decides to look at video of Jerome’s shooting. The video is short and reveals that the two officers did nothing in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Jerome flashes back to the moments as he lay dying and when his spirit left his body. Sarah’s reaction to the video forces Jerome to see that his death has left Sarah “forever changed” (109). The change is that she recognizes that Jerome was in some way invisible to a man like her father. Jerome responds to this important realization with anger when Sarah shares it, but the hint of Emmett nearby (the smell of lilacs and the flutter of a curtain) causes Jerome to feel shame and to wish that he and Sarah could comfort each other.

During her testimony, the 911 operator who took the call about a child playing with a toy gun reveals that she never relayed the information that the gun was not real. The lawyer asks her if she realizes this same mistake played a role in the death of Tamir Rice, another Black boy killed by a police officer after playing with a toy gun. Jerome feels pity for the operator, especially because he knows that passing on that the gun was a toy “wouldn’t have made any difference” (112) to police officers accustomed to assuming Black boys are dangerous criminals.

Free from the restrictions of the blocks around home and school, Jerome wanders anywhere he wishes and learns how nice Sarah’s school is compared to his. Jerome winks into existence while Sarah is in her school’s comfortable library, where the librarian has caught Sarah skipping class. Sarah asks the librarian to help her find information about Emmett Till, but the librarian is at first reluctant to provide information about Emmett’s violent death. Sarah’s refusal to accept that she will learn about this history later—Sarah notes she has gotten to the seventh grade without learning about Emmett—eventually convinces the librarian to help Sarah find out more.

The librarian reveals that the decision of Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till, to show Emmett’s brutalized body in an open casket made his death a catalyst for milestones of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The librarian helps Sarah find a picture of the open casket. The stunning picture brings Sarah to tears, but Jerome refuses to look at it because “[d]ead is dead” (117). His own death makes him unwilling to see this truth.

Jerome wanders around, unhappy at his in-between state. He hates being stuck, but he also has mixed feelings about what will happen with the passage of time. He wants his family to move on and not feel trapped in endless mourning for him, but he also doesn’t like the idea of being forgotten. Emmett appears beside him, as does the ghost of Trayvon Martin, another Black boy who became a ghost after a man murdered him in 2012. Jerome finally asks Emmett the most important question. Why do people kill Black boys, cutting short their boyhood? Peter Pan is not the only child who never grows up.

Officer Moore takes the stand again and reveals that he failed to announce himself, ask Jerome to put down the gun, ask Jerome to raise his hands, bring the police cruiser to a stop before shooting, perform CPR on Jerome, or call 911. His reactions during the shooting were all conditioned on the idea that “[a] police car is a coffin” (122) for fearful police officers as they go out on calls. The callousness of his inaction and actions cause the courtroom to erupt. Jerome stands by helplessly as the cold reality of what Officer Moore did to him brings grief to the Rogers family and Sarah. He disappears again.

Jerome observes life after his death by checking in on his family and Carlos. Grandma Rogers walks Kim to school, and Carlos walks them both back home after school. Carlos serves as welcome company for Kim and Grandma Rogers, who seem bowed down with their grief. Carlos tells them about the beauty of San Antonio, his hometown, but assures them he never wants to go back. Grandma Rogers grows to trust him so much that she eventually asks him to watch over Kim by walking her home. Looking at Carlos, Jerome realizes that the smiling face Carlos presents to Grandma is “false” (127), a cover for the sadness that “cloaks him” (127) since Jerome died. Jerome realizes that in the right light, Carlos looks a little like him.

On the second day of the hearing, Officer Moore testifies again. The prosecutor gets Moore to admit he shot Jerome in the back as he ran away from Moore. All Moore can do is repeat that he feared for his life. Watching Moore, Jerome realizes for the first time that although it seems unlikely that a man with a gun would be afraid of a 12-year-old, Moore is telling the truth as he felt it in the moment he shot Jerome. Jerome doesn’t know what to do with this insight.