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Summary
This section begins with the first of many minor point-of-view characters, Andrea Donahue, the Death-Cast herald who calls Mateo. She’s terrified of losing her job because she has medical needs, and she has to pay her daughter’s tuition. She’s proud of being one of Death-Cast’s top reps. Her trick for enduring a job that others find untenable is to convince herself that Deckers are no longer people. Meanwhile, Rufus bikes toward Mateo’s apartment, hoping Mateo will be a suitable Last Friend. Back at Rufus’s foster home, Malcolm argues with the police who came for Rufus. Tagoe joins in, both resist arrest, and they are taken to jail. In the squad car, Malcolm cries because he didn’t get the chance to hug Rufus and say goodbye.
When Rufus arrives at Mateo’s apartment, Mateo is nervous. Mateo imagines all the ways a stranger could hurt him but eventually opens the door. Mateo doesn’t invite him in, and struggles to leave the apartment. Mateo delays leaving the building with a final task: to leave a note for his neighbors about the broken stove in his apartment. As the finally leave, Rufus says they shouldn’t take the elevator since two Deckers in an elevator seems risky and Mateo agrees. Downstairs, Mateo hesitates again and only leaves with Rufus’s encouragement. Outside, Mateo feels a panic attack coming. He’s afraid being together might increase their risk of dying. Rufus reminds him they’re going to die no matter what, and they leave, but Mateo refuses to ride on Rufus’s bike. As they cross the street, they see a dead bird, and Mateo insists on burying it. He tells Rufus a story about a baby bird he found when he was younger. The baby bird was injured, and Mateo tried to shield it from the rain as it died.
Rufus is no longer suspicious of Mateo because he thinks he’s too good and too pure. He resolves never to tell Mateo about Peck, and the two head to the subway to go visit Mateo’s father. Still terrified of death, Mateo wonders how many Deckers are doing the same things they’re doing, and his grim attitude starts to impact Rufus, who gets depressed. When the train arrives, there’s a party in the car in front of them. Rufus hops on, but Mateo goes into an empty car by himself instead. A girl offers to get off the train with Rufus to presumably have sex, but he declines and joins Mateo in the empty car. Mateo says they have nothing to celebrate with a bunch of drunk strangers, and Rufus’s hopes of having a memorable End Day start to dwindle. Meanwhile, Aimee walks away from her former foster home with Peck. She’s furious that he had the police come for Rufus, and Peck is furious about her defending Rufus. Aimee has conflicting feelings. She wishes she could have more time with Rufus even though she’s not his girlfriend anymore, but she understands Peck’s hurt and angry feelings. Still, when Peck finally walks away from her, Aimee doesn’t go after him.
Analysis
Audrey’s section establishes a central philosophical question of the existential nature of a Decker. Once a person becomes a Decker, facing their inevitable pending death, is that person still alive, or has the person stopped being a real human? Audrey uses the idea of Deckers not being real people in order to stay grounded and unemotional in a difficult and stressful job. However, this idea is also played out in Mateo and Rufus’s approaches to their End Days. Even though he does reach out to Rufus, Mateo’s first instinct is to stay in his apartment and just accept his death passively. In essence, he agrees with Audrey that he’s already gone. Rufus, on the other hand, wants to live every minute of what’s left of his life. He represents the opposite of Audrey’s assertion, and he begins to pull Mateo into his philosophy that they both have life left to live and are very much still real people.
The philosophical question of whether free will and fate intersect when Rufus insists that they don’t take the elevator and Mateo refuses to ride on Rufus’s bike. Rufus goes back and forth with his fears: he’s concerned about the elevator, yet he doesn’t understand why Mateo won’t ride on his bike. Similarly, when Mateo expresses concern that being together all day might increase their chances of dying, Rufus reminds him they’re going to die no matter what. The paradox of the boys’ concerns and reactions shows how difficult it is to grasp the idea of mortality. It also demonstrates how they both still cling to the idea of possibly cheating death. Mateo experiences this paradoxical feeling when he smells the fresh air outside his building and believes for a second that he may be the first person to ever outlive his End Day. The way the boys go back and forth between fear, uncertainty, hope, and acceptance is representative of how people in general struggle with the concept of mortality and how to best live a good life.
Both Mateo and Rufus begin to balance their strengths and weaknesses in this section. Mateo takes time to write notes for his neighbors so they won’t worry about him even though he is wasting precious seconds of his End Day. Similarly, his insistence on burying the dead bird from the street reinforces that he is someone who puts others over himself, even a bird. As he approaches his End Day with Rufus, however, the implication is that he needs to focus on himself more and think of his own needs. Rufus also finds more balance. The idea of considering the feelings and needs of others is extended in Rufus’s actions in this section. Even though Mateo is clearly not the Last Friend Rufus expects or even wants, he leaves the carefree party car and the promise of sex to go sit with Mateo. Additionally, Malcolm and Aimee both grapple with the complexity of their closest relationships. Malcolm’s willingness to go to jail to give Rufus time to get away and his tears over not getting to say goodbye illustrate the emotional consequences of putting loved ones first. In contrast, Aimee is conflicted by her feelings for Peck and Rufus, and she finds it difficult to find a way to balance the two.
