Pigeon English

It’s the last month of school before summer break, and Harri wants to learn how to properly kiss a girl, so he can kiss Poppy. He reluctantly agrees to have Miquita show him how. Instead, she takes advantage of him and forces herself on him to a sickening degree, so much so that Lydia needs to intervene. Everything comes to a head and Lydia blurts out to Miquita: “‘At least my boyfriend’s not a murderer’” (225). Everything stops, then Lydia tells Miquita that she should not put up with the abuse she takes from Killa. Lydia commands Miquita to leave their apartment.

There is a moment of joy and relief amongst the harsh reality of Harri’s environment when he wins a race at school, making him the fastest runner in his year. However, this joy is fleeting, as a crisis boils at home with Auntie Sonia, who feels that she must leave so Julius does not cause more danger or harm to her and her family. Her leg is in a cast, which Harri suspects is the work of the Persuader. As she is leaving, Auntie Sonia remarks on the graffiti on the door, which just reads: “DEAD.”

Harri considers the nature of superheroes, expressing his preference for the ones who were "born normal" like Spiderman, because "then it could happen to anybody" (236). This thought brings Harri right up to the brink of holiday break, where he and his friends are desperately hoping and wishing not to have any homework for the whole summer. They decide if they avoid stepping on any cracks in the pavement until break, they will not have to have any homework. When the group splits, Harri and Dean go off on their own to continue their "police work" (238), and now have Lydia's Samsung phone to record anything they might witness. Together, they begin searching for any traces or sign of the dead boy's spirit. Visiting his favorite places, Harri asserts that "a piece of the dead person's spirit always stays in the places he knew, even if his soul has already gone to Heaven" (238). While they are holding the dead boy's photo and trying to feel his energy, the Dell Farm Crew shows up and surrounds them. Harri quickly drops the phone into the grass through the fence. Killa goes silent when he sees the dead boy's photograph and him and X-Fire have an altercation over the matter. Things continue to escalate, with X-Fire burning the photograph with his lighter and the Crew advancing on Harri and Dean. Lydia appears and, having found her phone in the grass, she records the entire event, which implicates Killa and the Crew in the dead boy’s murder. Lydia, Dean, and Harri run to the library for safety and Lydia emails the video to her friend Abena for safe-keeping. 

Back at school, Harri’s classmate, Connor Green, claims to know that Killa, whose real name is Jermaine Bent, is the one who murdered the dead boy, saying he was in his brother’s car and they passed by the scene and saw Killa running away. Harri is not sure whether or not to believe him, since Connor is prone to making up stories.

Harri returns to the idea of normal people becoming superheroes. During a game of rounders (similar to baseball) outside with his friends, he meanders into the woods to eat some wild apples that make him feel violently ill, thinking that perhaps by consuming them they would imbue him with protective superpowers. He is preparing for the inevitable war between himself and the Dell Farm Crew. War is seemingly declared when the playground is found set on fire. Looking at the scene once the blaze has been hosed down, Harri thinks to himself, “it just looked dirty and dead. It made you feel dead as well” (251). This sadness is transferred to Killa, as Harri spots him in the crowd surrounding the playground wreckage. Harri feels sorry for him.

Finally, the last day of school arrives and “it was like a race for the future” (258). Rushing out of the classroom to the outdoors, claiming their freedom, Poppy finally kisses Harri before she runs to her mother’s car. The moment fills Harri with joy and he runs home full of love and happiness, shouting out his love as he runs. He makes his way to his tower and is blindsided by his own murderer, who stabs him in his own stairwell and he is left to bleed out with his final thoughts lingering on his baby sister, Agnes.