Before the Ever After

Zachariah “44” Johnson, Sr is ZJ’s father, a famous tight end for a professional football team. While ZJ makes it a point to say his father is not his hero, Zachariah 44 does present a heroic figure to the outside world. In his community, he serves as a tremendous father figure to ZJ and his friends. He is loving and encouraging, spending quality time with ZJ and serving as a source of wisdom to both ZJ and his close friend, Ollie.

ZJ’s father loves everything about football, “even the smell of the ball” (12). He shares many of his dreams with ZJ, telling him he always wanted to be “somebody’s hero” (95). When ZJ reminds him that now “[he’s] everybody’s hero” (95), Zachariah Sr tears up. His dream has become realized, but by now, the consequences of that dream have begun to set in in a way that only Zachariah Sr. understands. He also gave ZJ his dream of playing music, gifting him a guitar because “[he] always wanted to play” (78). 

Although Before the Ever After shows the decline of Zachariah Sr. as a football hero, it also shows him passing on his legacy to his son via memories and music-making. In “Apple from the Tree,” Zachariah Sr. jokes that ZJ is becoming a “sensitive musician” (130), connecting him to his own favorite singer Rufus Wainwright. ZJ’s mother wryly responds, “Well, Mr. Tree, meet your son, Apple” (130). While the comment applies to the moment, it also applies to one of the more subtle points of the father-son relationship: that ZJ is taking on his father’s legacy, even as he pursues his own passion for music and copes with his father’s illness. 

ZJ and his friends refer to themselves as the Fantastic Four. Each one has a unique set of skills that makes him heroic in the other boy’s eyes. Love and loyalty characterize their bond. Daniel is especially sensitive and brave, riding a bike he calls “a Magic Broom, [spinning] it in so many circles / we all get dizzy, but not Daniel” (14). Darry loves music and dancing; he “moves like water flowing” (14). Ollie “divides fractions in his head” and “knows / so much about so much but doesn’t show off / about knowing” (14). Ollie is ZJ’s oldest friend, and his mom, Bernadette, is close friends with ZJ’s mom, Lisa. Together, these boys form a safety net around ZJ, helping him navigate the helplessness he feels in the face of his father’s illness. They show up for ZJ and one another at the most crucial moments. One New Year’s Eve, the boys are together when ZJ’s father yells and ZJ’s world as he knows it ends. They visit when ZJ’s father is in the hospital. The Fantastic Four is together when ZJ gives the football away to Everett, symbolically making peace with his father’s illness.

By depicting a group of young Black boys who remain child-like in the face of difficulty and band together to support one another emotionally, Woodson counters common narratives about Black boys.

Everett is an 8th grader who is “way bigger than any of [ZJ’s friends and classmates]” (139) because this year is his second time in 8th grade. He’s known “to tackle even though / we’re supposed to be playing two-hand touch” (140). His actions prompt ZJ to give up playing football for good.

Everett’s attitude toward football is reverential; to him, football can do no wrong. His condescending tone toward ZJ symbolizes attitudes that most football enthusiasts had about the game when the story takes place. It also represents an attitude that people will continue to have for more than a decade, even as more and more evidence emerges that the concussions players get on the field can lead to debilitating CTE.

At the same time, Everett is a mirror into what ZJ’s father might have been like when he was young: serious about the game and his dreams to play professionally. He’s so passionate that he runs in the park wearing ankle and wrist weights. When ZJ gives Everett his father’s ball and tells him good luck, it symbolizes his giving up that part of his father’s legacy and keeping the rest. ZJ’s well wishes may express hope that things turn out better for Everette than they have for his father.