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Summary
Chapters 11-12
Chapter 11
Jojo is overwhelmed when he sees Pop, who comforts him and promises to talk to him the next day about his journey. He’s startled by how Richie is gazing at Pop, with a face full of undisguised hope. Richie tries to speak to Pop but can’t make him hear, and instead Pop talks to Jojo about the gris-gris bag he hid in his clothes. Richie angrily asks why Pop can’t hear him, and spitefully tells Jojo that Pop will leave him like he left Richie. Pop and Jojo sit and look at the stars, while Richie tries to show Pop his wounds from the whipping he received at Parchman. Pop and Jojo go inside, and Richie stays on the porch, unable to communicate. Jojo wakes up as Kayla pulls at his face, then goes to the kitchen where Michael is cooking. Michael tries to talk to Jojo about things they’d done together when he was younger, but Jojo doesn’t remember those times with much fondness. He and Kayla are hungry, but Michael gets so absorbed in telling Jojo stories that he burns the bacon on the stove to a crisp. Kayla throws a tantrum and when she won’t calm down, Michael hits her. Jojo is furious and scared, and runs out of the back door with Kayla.
Richie appears to Jojo outside, and asks him why Pop can’t hear him. Jojo shrugs, but Richie tells him that he has to ask Pop to tell the story of what happened to him. He thinks it’s the only way he can move on from being trapped on Earth. Jojo is reluctant, but tries to make Richie promise he’ll leave if he can get Pop to tell the story. Jojo goes back inside to feed Kayla, and brings Mam some water. She tells him that Leonie doesn’t have the instincts to be a good mother, and that she hopes she’s done enough to feed Jojo. Jojo asks Mam where she will go after she dies, and Mam tells him that death is like a door, and she won’t be a ghost. Mam asks him if he can see ghosts, and he tells her he can’t, not wanting to worry her.
Chapter 12
Richie jealously watches Jojo and Kayla's interactions with Pop, wishing he’d had the same experiences. Pop feeds the children berries, and Richie stands over Jojo, demanding to know what they taste like. His pestering annoys Jojo, who walks away from Pop. Unable to bear the pain of watching the family care for each other, Richie goes outside and lies under the house, longing for closeness and singing wordless songs. During the night, he suddenly experiences a vision of an otherworldly place filled with homes, joyful people, and a perpetual golden light. The vision leaves him gasping, and he claws at the air, desperate to reach the place he's seen.
The next morning, as Leonie and Michael return, Richie sees a flash of the ghost of Given, but he’s quickly gone. Leonie and Michael kiss, and then she walks away down the road. She wants a moment alone, but Richie follows her. They arrive at a graveyard where Leonie speaks to Given’s gravestone. He doesn’t appear, and frustrated, she quickly gathers some rocks for Mam, turns and leaves. She walks home and enters Mam’s room, waking her to tell her she’ll help with the ritual. Mam looks at her with love, and Richie hears the song from the golden place again. The scaly bird appears to him, cawing on the windowsill.
Analysis
This section is full of language about speaking, listening, and hearing. When the family arrives back at Mam and Pop’s house, Jojo notices Richie staring at Pop with a hopeful expression. It’s as if Richie is seeing the only thing in the world he cares about. This only makes it more tragic when Richie realizes that Pop can’t hear him. He had envisioned a joyful reunion with his friend River, but instead he’s only able to communicate through Jojo. Richie is already jealous of Jojo, but his envy boils over when he sees Pop talking to him lovingly and asking him about the gris-gris bag. Richie is so frustrated that Pop can't hear him that he is determined to ruin Jojo’s reunion with him too. He spitefully warns Jojo that he shouldn’t get too attached, as Pop will eventually abandon Jojo just as he did Richie. No matter what Richie does, Pop can’t hear him. As the two humans and the ghost sit on the porch together, there are two separate conversations going on. One is between Pop and Jojo, which is a two-way communication. The other is between Richie and Pop, but Pop has no idea it’s happening. Richie can’t believe that his friend River would ignore him, and decides that he will show Pop the scars from his whipping at Parchman. However, even this doesn’t work, and Pop and Jojo go inside. Richie is horrified; if he can’t get his story from Pop, he’ll be a ghost forever.
Jojo’s relationship with Michael is the opposite of Richie’s with Pop. Far from being excited to see him or comforted by his presence, Jojo is unnerved and annoyed by his father being in their home. There’s a role reversal here, as Michael tries to communicate with Jojo and Jojo doesn’t add much to the conversation. In an attempt to bond with him, Michael starts to tell Jojo romanticized versions of things they did together when Jojo was younger, but Jojo just lets the stories wash over him, not committing to an emotional connection with his father. When Kayla throws a tantrum, Michael tries futilely to exercise his parental authority, hitting her several times in frustration. Though Jojois a child himself, his methods of caring for Kayla seem infinitely more adult and reasonable when they’re juxtaposed against the parenting skills of his father.
“Watching this family,” Richie says, “grabs me inside, twists, and pulls tight. It hurts.” Richie deeply envies Jojo and Kayla's interactions with Pop, wishing for similar experiences and knowing he’ll never have them. As Pop feeds the children berries and they work together in the garden, Richie is stuck on the outside, unable to communicate with the one person he wants to talk to most. As he lies keening under the house at night, he begins to have a vision of what seems like heaven; a world where everything is connected and which is constantly in harmonious song. This is the opposite of how he is currently feeling, and it makes him yearn to be able to pass on more than ever. More than anything else, Richie wants to find a home and be free of his pain. He had thought he would be released by reuniting with River, but all that has done is give him more to regret. He questions Jojo about Pop's inability to hear him, thinking that Jojo is somehow keeping something from him. When it’s clear that Jojo doesn’t know why Pop and Richie aren’t connected, Richie reverts to his secondary plan. Richie believes that Jojo must persuade Pop to share his story to free himself from earthly confines. He wants Jojo to do that somewhere where he can hear the truth for himself. It’s not enough for Jojo to tell him: it’s a story that can only come from Pop.
