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Summary
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 returns to Leonie’s perspective. On the night of Jojo’s birthday, Misty proposed to Leonie that they fund their trip up North by smuggling drugs. Leonie is very apprehensive, but Misty seems extremely relaxed. She assures Leonie that she’s done it before and it’s lucrative. Leonie needs the money the deal would provide, which she believes would promise more financial stability for her and Michael when he’s released. Leonie resents Misty's carefree attitude towards the drug deal, particularly given that Misty is white and privileged. She wonders if Misty realizes that things which seem easy for her—like interactions with the polic—might come harder to a Black woman.
Leonie then thinks back to how Michael modified her car to include a hidden compartment before he went to jail. He had been home, traumatized, for about six months from working on an oil rig called the Deepwater Horizon. The rig blew up but Michael survived, though his eleven companions all died. He struggled to find work and suffered from PTSD after the explosion. Leonie noticed he was getting thin and strung-out-looking, but attributed it to stress because of his efforts to hide his meth use from her. She implies that at this point he was still successfully concealing his addiction from her and the children.
Leonie and Misty have decided to hide the nature of their cargo a secret from Jojo, referring to it in code to avoid his attention. Leonie is aggravated by Kayla’s persistent crying and her carsickness, but is equally annoyed by Jojo's attentiveness to his sister. She feels guilty and jealous, because their bond seems to surpass her own maternal connection with Kayla. She struggles to soothe Kayla in general, and has no idea what to do with her when she’s inconsolable. Kayla suddenly vomits all over herself, covering her body and the backseat in foul-smelling fluid. They pull over, but Leonie has to rely on Jojo to calm her daughter down. Jojo immediately starts to care for Kayla, seemingly unbothered by the vomit she’s drenched in. Leonie buys some Powerade to give to Kayla, hoping it will make her feel steadier. She’s hurt further when Kayla won’t drink anything she gives her, refusing to do so until Jojo feeds the Powerade to her.
After Kayla vomits several times, Leonie goes in search of plants that could alleviate her nausea. She scrapes through the foliage at the side of the road, lamenting the fact that she didn’t pay attention when Mam was trying to teach her about the healing properties of plants. Mam was always able to identify the herbs and plants she came across, but Leonie could never remember which plants served which purpose. She knows that wild strawberries could help with Kayla’s nausea, but can’t find them anywhere. However, she does find wild blackberries and, despite not fully remembering her mother's instructions, decides to use them to try and treat Kayla’s vomiting.
Analysis
Chapter 4 makes it clear that the road isn’t just a road in Sing, Unburied, Sing: it’s also an extended metaphor for Leonie’s mental state. Indeed, the act of driving itself becomes symbolic. Leonie is at the wheel, navigating the car – a microcosm of her family – but the control she exerts is shaky and uncertain. In the car as in her home, she’s annoyed and flustered by her children’s needs and noises, and by Misty’s privileged laziness and ignorance. Just as unexpected roadblocks like vomiting toddlers can disrupt the journey, unforeseen events can derail Leonie's fragile sense of stability. Although there are lots of places to turn, Leonie is going forward the best way she can, and the only way she knows how. The presence of her children in the backseat is a constant reminder of her responsibilities, and she regularly feels inadequate or stepped on when things don’t go the way she has planned.
Trying to cure Kayla of her horrible vomiting is one such failed plan. At first Leonie was frustrated with her daughter for fussing, but when she develops a high fever Leonie grows concerned. Memories of Mam start to crowd in, highlighting Leonie’s own inadequacies as a caregiver. Mam's knowledge of healing and nature, and her natural ability to nurture and soothe, are the opposite of Leonie. When she doesn’t remember which herbs will help her daughter, she cobbles together a poisonous-looking tea with blackberry leaves.
This regular and reliably nurturing behavior from Jojo throws Leonie's shortcomings as a mother into sharp relief. Jojo's protectiveness toward Kayla and the toddler’s comfort with him exposes the emotional distance between Leonie and her children. Leonie doesn’t think it’s natural that when her daughter cries, she reaches for her brother, and that she only wants Jojo to hold her and play with her. Jojo's constant vigilance as a parental figure to Kayla is too obvious to miss, and it makes Leonie angry and jealous. She’s barely able to recognize it when her children desperately need things, but Jojo anticipates Kayla’s needs and provide for her. His competence makes Leonie feel very insecure. He not only cares for his own needs but also anticipates Kayla's, ensuring her comfort during the trip. The only person Leonie has ever cared about that much has been Michael, who is constantly on her mind as they draw closer to him.
While Michael remains physically absent in Chapter 4 of Sing, Unburied, Sing, his presence starts to feel more and more familiar as he appears in Leonie’s flashbacks and thoughts. The author also subtly introduces another haunting to the story, the creeping specter of Michael's post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. The half-confessional, half-concealed way Leonie describes their drug habits is clear foreshadowing for their lives being overtaken by those habits. Leonie and Michael had always taken drugs casually, but when Michael was the only survivor of a tragic oil well explosion, their drug use escalated. Her thoughts, swirling with anxiety and excitement, also hint at the psychological wounds she’s sure Michael carries from his incarceration. She worries about his ability to reintegrate into society, particularly because of his potential for violence. The financial burdens alone are a concern, but the specter of bigotry around their relationship is a larger one. Stressful events like the ones she worries are ahead could all be triggers for Michael's PTSD. This, in turn, foreshadows a potential turn to drugs or alcohol as a means of self-medication, a coping mechanism Leonie herself is already familiar with. The emotional and psychological strain of Michael's trauma, coupled with the external pressures he and his family face, could do an enormous amount of damage to their already fragile little family. Leonie decides to help transport the drugs so that she can avoid at least some of these pitfalls, and perhaps even have enough money for them to move out and start anew somewhere.
