Ghost Boys

The news story on his killing is brief, with the officer claiming he “had no choice” but to kill Jerome because Jerome had a gun (5).

The novel flashes back to a pivotal morning leading up to Jerome’s death. It was a typical morning, one in which Mrs. Rogers insisted that Jerome come home immediately after school, told his grandmother three good things to reassure her before he braved the walk to school with his little sister Kim, and thought about his dreams of being a famous athlete or of going to college (his family’s dream for him).

The walk to school is dangerous. It takes Jerome and Kim past Green Acres, a housing project where drug dealing takes place openly. School is also dangerous. Three bullies—Eddie, Snap, and Mike—are as usual waiting at the schoolhouse door to terrorize Jerome, who decides to dodge them at lunch by eating in the rest room.

Back in the present, the Rogers family has gathered in the apartment to mourn and express their anger at the killing. Jerome has the uncomfortable experience of people walking through him because they cannot see him, and he watches his sister withdraw into a book. Different people respond consciously and unconsciously to his spirit—the minister sidles past him without seeing the ghost, while Grandma seems aware that something is there, despite her family’s scoffing at her insistence that her grandson has not yet moved on. As the Rogers grieve, they grow angry. Jerome has now joined Emmett Till and Tamir Rice, two boys killed senselessly decades apart, and the family members, especially Pop (Jerome’s father), begin talking about this history. Jerome feels great pain as he watches his family’s anger and grief. A ghost—another Black boy like Jerome and whose identity is later revealed as Emmett Till—calls to Jerome, telling him that it is “[t]ime to wake up” (25). Jerome follows him.

On subsequent days, Jerome watches helplessly as his family members struggle with their anger and grief. Jerome knows he is a ghost, but he has no idea of where he is supposed to go. Out of all the Rogers, Grandma is the one who seems to be aware that Jerome is haunting their apartment.

The day of Jerome’s funeral arrives. Like Mamie Till, Emmett Till’s mother, Mrs. Rogers insists that his casket be open so the world can see what her son’s killer did. As the family enters the church, Carlos, a boy who identifies himself as a school friend of Jerome’s, gives a picture to Grandma Rogers, who smiles, much to Jerome’s puzzlement.

As the funeral begins, the fellow ghost Jerome saw previously arrives again and tells Jerome that it is best not to watch the service because it is unsettling to see yourself in a casket.

Back on December 8, Jerome decides to break his usual commitment to invisibility by agreeing to be the buddy for Carlos, a new student from San Antonio, Texas. Jerome leads Carlos to the school bathroom during lunch so they can avoid bullies.

During lunch, Carlos asks if Jerome will be his friend and ally. Jerome knows that having friends can be good—it means you are not alone—but being a friend might also mean getting into fights to defend your friend. Carlos’s loneliness is so obvious that Jerome agrees to be his friend. This alliance immediately leads to trouble. Eddie, Mike, and Snap burst into the bathroom to bully the two boys. When the three boys attack Carlos, Jerome stands up to them for the first time ever by threatening to tell on them. Carlos goes even further by pulling out a gun.

Four months after his death, Jerome haunts the courtroom at the preliminary hearing that will determine if there is enough evidence to go to trial. The Rogers family and the family of Officer Moore, the officer who shot Jerome, are present. Officer Moore testifies that he felt he was in danger when he shot Jerome, whom he describes as a large, threatening person (despite Jerome’s age).

The courtroom erupts at this unbelievable description of Jerome. Mrs. Rogers cries and others shout out that the lives of Black people and Jerome matter. This upsetting scene becomes even more disturbing when Sarah Moore, the daughter of the officer who killed Jerome, speaks directly to Jerome, revealing that she can see him.

Back at the confrontation with the bullies, Snap, Eddie, and Mike are frightened by the appearance of the gun, but they leave with vague threats to get Jerome later. Eddie sneers at Jerome’s sudden bravery. After the bullies leave, Carlos reveals that the gun is just a toy one made from plastic. The two boys laugh from sheer relief. 

Jerome finds Sarah’s home, which is much nicer than the apartment where the Rogers live. Jerome and Sarah talk. She tells him that she is sad and isolated since the shooting. Her parents fight frequently, and Sarah is an outcast because of the attention around Jerome’s death.

Sarah sees her father as the typical police officer, a person whose job it is to “protect and serve” (65), but Jerome points out that this attitude does not extend to him, his neighborhood, and other people of color. As Jerome looks around Sarah’s room, he notices that it is “like cotton candy” (65), full of the things given to a girl who lives a sheltered life. She is sorry that Jerome is dead and wants to help, but she doesn’t know how.

Officer Moore enters the room to say good night, but Sarah questions him about the shooting. He explains that on the day he shot Jerome, he felt nervous because the neighborhood was a high-crime one and because Jerome looked large and threatening to him. Sarah looks at Jerome’s ghost and points out that she and Jerome are the same height. Her insistence on rejecting her father’s account angers Officer Moore, who leaves the room.

This conversation leaves Sarah feeling unsettled and Jerome angry. Sarah asks Jerome to be friends with her, but the irony of having to die to have a friendship across racial lines is too much for Jerome. He fades out of awareness for a minute, then comes back to find Sarah crying about how difficult her life is. People are mean to her because of who her father is, while others celebrate her for the same reason. She also feels fear: If Jerome, a boy her age and size, can die as he did, she wonders if the same thing might happen to her. Jerome, recalling the times his family gave him the so-called talk about how not to come to the attention of law enforcement, tells her this is unlikely because she is a White girl. The chapter ends with both of them laughing and musing over why they can see each other.

The rest of the day after the encounter in the bathroom with the bullies and the gun is a confusing and exhausting one for Jerome. It feels good to have an ally and to have escaped a beating, but Jerome knows the toy gun is part of everything his parents have insisted he avoid. After school, Jerome accepts the toy gun from Carlos because he is intrigued by it and hopes it might shield him from future beatings from the bullies. Kim sees this exchange and looks on in disapproval and anger. Jerome knows she doesn’t approve, but with the realistic toy gun in his pocket, he feels powerful and capable of defending himself. In the end, Kim and Jerome come to a silent agreement that she will not say anything about the gun.