We Cast a Shadow

At Seasons, the narrator feels some relief. Octavia has been happy with his work lately, and it seems he will get his promotion and will be able to fund Nigel’s procedure. At lunch, Dinah strikes up a conversation with the narrator. She’s been dating Pavor for a few months now. Noticing subtle differences in her facial features, he realizes she’s had cosmetic surgery. She now looks “as if someone hopped in a time machine and swapped out one of her [Vietnamese] parents for a Swedish person” (211). Dinah claims that she didn’t do it for Pavor, but to escape the lifelong burdensome stereotype of a “good Asian girl” (211). She reveals that Pavor proposed to her after the surgery, then thanks the narrator for being her friend before asking him not to cut her off for what she’s done. The narrator asks what she means, but it’s Octavia who answers. Appearing at the door, she rips off Dinah’s lapel pin and explains that Dinah defected to Armbruster, who just acquired Darkblum Group’s clientship. The narrator realizes that, with the new client under Armbruster, all Octavia’s work will go to Armbruster’s group: Neither he nor Octavia will receive any credit for their work through the past year.

Wanting to keep up the appearance of normalcy, the narrator takes Nigel grocery shopping. Nigel argues that it’s a pointless trip because neither of them has been hungry since Penny’s death, and all the food they’re buying is going bad. Privately, the narrator agrees. A tall man approaches them; it’s Eckstein from PHH, recognizing Nigel from one of Seasons’ picnics. Nigel tells him that Penny is dead, and Eckstein abruptly pulls them into a hug. He tells them that his wife Beverly and Crown’s mother died when Crown was very young. He also reveals that he’s been under stress about PHH. After the protests and recent incidents of terrorism, the company’s stock dipped dramatically. He explains that ADZE used to be a “community-minded group that tried to build people up” (218) and provided vital services to uplift the Black community, including an annual Visions of Blackness pride festival. Eckstein opines that ADZE, in its current form, is infiltrated by government agitators. The narrator suggests that PHH throw a new Visions of Blackness festival, with Crown as the headliner. Impressed, Eckstein agrees.

Thrilled by his success, the narrator visits Seasons to tell Octavia about the festival deal. She’s delighted and reveals that Dinah’s “defection” to Armbruster’s group was staged; Dinah is actually acting as an informant, reporting the group’s every move back to Octavia. On top of that, Pavor is set to win his mayoral campaign, and has secured federal funding for PHH’s demelanization procedures. Everything seems to be falling into place.

At Dr. Nzinga’s office, Nigel undergoes a consultation for demelanization. Octavia covered the fees for this initial visit because she is so happy with the narrator’s recent work. She expects him to become a shareholder once the festival is over. The process of demelanization will take six months, changing the pigmentation of Nigel’s skin and hair but leaving his facial features untouched. In addition to making him lighter, it will “keep him, or his once and future children, from ever being black” (223). Nigel was reluctant to come to the clinic, wanting to bring Araminta along, but the narrator refused. Nigel suggests they play a game of dice. If he wins, they will leave. If the narrator wins, he will never again complain about the procedure. Nigel wins the first five rounds before revealing that the dice are loaded. The narrator feels hurt. Nigel’s trickery feels like “an inversion of [their] relationship” (224). Dr. Nzinga enters the room to begin the consultation. 

The narrator wakes up in Jo Jo’s house, in Jo Jo’s bed, having overdosed so badly on Geishas that he required resuscitation. A note from Jo Jo reveals that he and Polaire left to join a revolution in Oman. Jo Jo did not leave the narrator any more drugs, advising him to move past his addiction.

The narrator wakes again, this time in his own bedroom. He realizes with a start that it’s been weeks since he overdosed at Jo Jo’s. Mama is there, having brought Nigel to school and staved off CPS. She tells him that the Chicken Coop was shut down by the government, and the fence around the Tiko is expanding. She touches her forearm, and the narrator involuntarily recalls how it was injured decades ago:

On the day of a past Visions of Blackness festival at the Tiko, Supercargo wakens the narrator. The narrator reveals that Supercargo’s real name is Dee Soyinka, and he’s the son of Ms. Wendy Woods, the woman killed for standing up to the Anti-Violence Task Force. As the family peruses the goods on offer at the festival, they are stopped by Officer Douglas, who accuses Sir of stealing a bike. The narrator begins to insult Douglas, but Sir tells him to be quiet and respectful. He has always taught the narrator that a Black man can’t rely on a fair world, and, although he should never bow, it’s best to show respect even to those undeserving of it. Douglas swats the narrator with the baton, causing Mama to step in and push him off. Douglas reactively shoves her to the ground, injuring her arm. Unable to contain his rage, Sir lunges for Douglas. Douglas cracks him in the head twice with the baton, exposing flesh, and makes Sir apologize. In the aftermath of the incident, the narrator is furious at his father. For all of his talk about self-respect and restraint, Sir’s outburst caused him to be separated from his family.

Reflecting on this memory in the present, the narrator renews his promise to himself to never act like Sir so that he can stay in Nigel’s life and protect him. Ma reminds him that, while Penny is dead, he must look out for himself and his son. Nigel is slipping away as the narrator falls deeper into addiction and obsession. She threatens to move in with them unless he visits Sir in prison. 

Liberia, the prison where Sir is incarcerated, is the City’s oldest penitentiary. Sir holds a life sentence within its walls for the attempted murder of a peace officer. The narrator is escorted inside by a former junior administrator turned assistant warden who remembers the narrator from his childhood visit. The narrator recalls a particular visit he and Mama made to Sir when he was first incarcerated. Still angry and grieving his loss, the young narrator yelled at Sir for not following his own advice. With tears in his eyes, Sir retracted the advice and told the narrator, “you can’t give in to them, because then you’ll have nothing left” (246). 

The assistant warden informs the narrator that Sir is psychologically unwell and was transferred to solitary confinement after an undisclosed incident from the previous year. In a separate building, he finds Sir sitting in front of a TV that’s playing vintage cartoons. Sir looks impossibly small and old and does not react when the narrator greets him. Looking into his father’s empty eyes, the narrator realizes that Sir cannot hear or see him and is distraught that he “managed to lose the same man twice” (249). In the prison parking lot, he finds Mama, who quietly pulls him into a hug.