Monday's Not Coming

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “One Year Before the Before”

Monday and Claudia walked home from school together. Monday wore a jacket Claudia lent her because she didn’t have her own. Claudia was nervous about reading in front of her church. Monday said she could pretend to be sick. (Monday lied for self-preservation, with “matter-of-fact precision” unlike Claudia, who still can’t pull off a lie.) When Claudia said Ma would be mad, Monday was dismissive.

When a group of boys entered the Chinese restaurant they were in, Monday and Claudia communicated about them in the secret language they made up together in fifth grade. Claudia was afraid of the boys, but Monday was confident. Monday found one of the boys attractive, and they checked Monday out, too, arousing confusing feelings of jealousy in Claudia. One boy blocked their exit, and the rest of the boys surrounded the two girls for a moment before the girls could escape. Although the encounter scared them, Monday was exhilarated by the interaction with these older, high school-aged boys. “That year, the conversation about boys had turned from hypothetical dreams of rappers and movie stars to realities of neighbors and classmates” (33).

They went to the library, where Ms. Paul kept an eye on Claudia after school every day on Ma’s behalf, to check in. Then, they went to Claudia’s, where Monday teased her friend by making her Barbies kiss and asked if she thought those boys would have really tried to get with them. Claudia thought they would have.

They worked on a dance routine to one of their favorite songs, as they often did together after school. Monday was an excellent dancer. Since her parents couldn’t afford dance lessons, Claudia taught Monday the moves she learned at her lessons. Monday wanted to try out for cheerleading, which made Claudia feel threatened. They’d agreed to wait until high school to audition, and Claudia was afraid the popular girls would steal Monday’s friendship from her. She convinced Monday to reconsider.

In and around the Southeast community, where the girls lived, everyone knew someone affected by crack addiction. The Southeast community still put on a block party every year. Ed Borough, where Monday lived, was built during World War II on land that was given to freed slaves in the 1800s. Later, that land proved valuable, and the crack epidemic suspiciously coincided with this fact: “How convenient that crack would ravish the area developers wanted most” (38).

At one such block party, Ma called for the girls to get some pie. Monday’s mother was there too. When Monday jokingly grabbed for a slice before her turn, her mother snapped at her and slapped her hand away. Monday’s reaction was extreme and terrified. In their secret language, Claudia asked if Monday was okay. Monday only nodded in response.

Chapter 5 Summary: “October”

After Monday’s disappearance, everyone asked Claudia over and over if she saw any red flags. She hadn’t noticed any, however, which prompted people to call her a liar. To Claudia, everything surrounding Monday was red: “If Monday were a color, she’d be red. Crisp, striking, vivid, you couldn’t miss her—a bull’s-eye in the room, a crackling flame. I saw so much red that it blinded me to any flags” (41).

Chapters 4-5 Analysis

If “The Before” takes place in the months before the discovery of Monday’s body, the years before the before dive back into Claudia and Monday’s history and explore the events that shaped their relationship. Monday and Claudia were coming of age in their middle school, with Monday becoming more interested in boys. Claudia felt jealous of the attention that boys paid to Monday; she also reacted possessively when Monday mentioned trying out for the cheerleading squad. Claudia depended on Monday for social and academic support (although Monday arguably received things in return, like dance lessons from Claudia). The deep trauma that Claudia experienced when Monday died resulted from the depth to which Claudia depended on her friend.

Monday’s ease with lying and her dismissiveness toward Ma’s anger show how Monday’s world view differed from Claudia’s. Monday had to lie to survive, and she had a higher tolerance for expressions of anger. Yet when Mrs. Charles snapped at Monday during the block party, Monday’s extreme and frightened reaction hinted that she, a girl largely unafraid of angry adults, was terrified of her own mother.

Residents of the Southeast neighborhood had long felt suspicious of the government even before gentrification began. Rumors swirled that the government introduced crack to the area to push residents out so that developers could buy the property that the government had given to freed slaves. The rumor underscores the deep suspicion that residents harbor toward the government. They assume that the government is more than indifferent; it’s hostile and seeks to do them harm.

After Monday’s death, people ask Claudia if she saw red flags. She says that Monday’s whole life was a red flag, which made it impossible to tell when something was particularly wrong. Yet despite the screaming warning signs, adults reacted with indifference when Monday disappeared. Like Claudia, they saw red around Monday and the Charles family all the time; red flags blended into the scenery.