After the day when Ardell and his friends made a circle around Jojo, it seems that no one has anything better to do than be out there on the street to see what will happen next. Will Jojo call up his old friends? Will they come over and back him up the way they used to before he went away? Will it come down to Ardell on one side of the street and Jojo on the other, each with his own gang of friends? Will it come down to a real battle—and if it does, who will win? And then what will happen?
The next day Jojo doesn’t come out of the house at all. I go out back at my house and look over the fence. Jojo’s mother doesn’t come out either, even though it’s one of those nice days, warm but not too hot, not sticky either, with a nice breeze to cool you down.
The day after that, late in the afternoon, after everyone has seen Ardell and his mother walk down to the bus together, Jojo shows his face. He walks down the street to where the stores are. People drift down the street after him, as if they are curious about something. But what? Ardell isn’t there. Nothing can happen. But people follow, which makes me curious. So I follow the people who are following Jojo.
Jojo walks directly to Mr. Brisebois’s grocery store. Just as he gets to the door, Mr. Brisebois turns the lock and flips the sign in the door to CLOSED. Jojo looks through the glass at him. Then he looks down the block to the convenience store. He starts to walk toward it. Before he gets there, a CLOSED sign appears in the window. Three blocks down, there’s a small fruit and vegetablestore. It’s always open, even on holidays when Mr. Brisebois’s store is closed. But by the time Jojo gets to it, it’s closed. Jojo hammers on the door. No one answers.
Jojo turns and looks at all the people who are watching him. A kid picks up a rock and throws it at him. He misses, but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is that there are adults watching too. Lots of them. And not one of them says a word to the kid.
The whole way back to his mother’s house, Jojo keeps looking over his shoulder. He disappears inside.
The day after that, the bus stops at the end of the street. Shana gets out with her baby—Jojo’s baby—in the stroller. She has two big bags with her. She stashes one on the rack underneath where the boy sits. She slings the other one over her shoulder. It bulges and looks heavy. She pushes the stroller up the street on the same side as her parents’ house. Of course everyone thinks that’s where she’s going. She’s going to see her parents.
But before she gets to Ardell’s house, she crosses the street and pushes the stroller upthe walk to Jojo’s mother’s house. She leaves the stroller at the bottom of the porch steps and takes the two big bags up to the door. She presses the doorbell, and the door opens. She hands the two bags inside and then goes back down the steps. This time she picks up the stroller and carries it up onto the porch and into the house. The door closes behind her.
Up and down the street, people are staring at Jojo’s mother’s front door. Ardell is staring the hardest. He comes down off his porch and marches himself to Shana’s parents’ house. The next thing you know, Shana’s father comes out of his house, crosses the street to Jojo’s mother’s house and presses the doorbell half a dozen times. When no one answers, he hammers on the door. Ardell is standing at the bottom of the porch steps, watching him.
“My brother is in the hospital because of him,” Ardell says. “And because of her.”
“You think I like this?” Shana’s father says. “You think I like that my grandson has him for a father? I would rather she’d never had that baby. I—”
Shana is standing in the open door. Jojo is behind her. I can see that he’s holding Benjamin in his arms.
“What are you doing here, Papa?” Shana says.
Shana’s father grabs her by the arm and drags her out onto the porch.
“What are you doing here?” he says.
Shana looks at her father. Shana is so pretty. People around here say she should enter one of those top model contests. They say she would win for sure. I know that Shana’s father thinks so too. He has always been proud of her. He always called her “my little girl,” right up until she got pregnant with Jojo’s baby. But he loves her—you can tell by the way he looks at her. And now he says all the time that the child looks just like its mother, and you can tell that makes him happy. My mother says she’s sure it would be different if every time Shana’s father looked at his grandson, he found himself looking at Jojo. She says the thing that saves that child from being an outcast in his own family is that he doesn’t look anything like his daddy.
Shana’s father says, “Get the baby and come out of there right now before everyone starts to think—”
“Before they start to think what?” Shana says.
“Just come out of there,” Shana’s father says.
“Benjamin is visiting his other family,” Shana says. “We’ll come out when we’re finished.” She steps back into the house where Jojo is still holding the boy. Benjamin reaches out and pulls Jojo’s nose. Jojo makes a funny face. Shana laughs. The door closes behind her.
Shana’s father stands there a moment, staring at the closed door like he can’t believe what has just happened. He comes down the porch steps.
“You should tell your daughter to stay away from him,” Ardell says.
“You should have a daughter and watch her grow into a woman and then try to tell her anything,” Shana’s father says.
“My brother’s in the hospital because of her,” Ardell says.
“Your brother’s in the hospital because of Jojo,” Shana’s father says. “And don’t you forget it.”
He walks back across the street and stands in front of his house, waiting for Shana to appear. He waits for more than an hour. When Shana finally comes across the street, he takes the child from her. The whole way up his front walk, he talks to Shana. I can’t hear what he says, but I can tell he’s mad. He looks at Jojo’s mother’s house before he goes inside.
That evening, Jojo’s mother is outside under the umbrella. She looks older now, but she smiles when Jojo brings her a tray of food. I hear her say, “That child looks more like you every day.”
Jojo smiles.