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Summary
As they leave Make-a-Moment, Rufus and Mateo find a ditch full of abandoned pay phones. While sifting through the other garbage, Mateo finds a pair of sneakers and tells Rufus about how he encountered a barefooted guy with a bloody nose the year before. Rufus isn’t surprised when Mateo says he gave the guy the sneakers off his own feet. Their conversation shifts to how no one uses pay phones and other things like DVDs and handwritten notes anymore. Meanwhile, Tagoe and Malcolm are still in jail. Reflecting on how he didn’t get to say goodbye to Rufus, Tagoe takes off his glasses to let his vision blur, something he does when he wants to retreat into his thoughts. He quits trying to suppress the tics in his neck and thinks about his father’s abandonment and eventual suicide. When Malcolm asks if Tagoe would look for his mother if he got the call from Death-Cast, Tagoe says he wouldn’t waste time on his End Day with people who didn’t want to be with him.
At 10:03 AM, the story switches to the point of view of a minor character, Kendrick O’Connor. He has just lost his job and is thinking about how he has never been lucky. Kendrick thinks about a time when his mother bought him an expensive pair of sneakers that she couldn’t afford. As he recalls how he got those shoes stolen by four bigger boys, it’s clear that Kendrick is the kid whom Mateo gave his own shoes to. After the incident, Kendrick is determined never to be a victim again. He joins the same gang as Peck and becomes known as the Knockout King because he can render someone unconscious with just one punch.
Meanwhile, Mateo decides he wants to go visit his mother’s grave. On the train, the power goes off and the train stops. Mateo instinctively moves closer to Rufus to shield him in case there is any danger. He wants to protect Rufus from dying so he can see the Plutos again. Mateo begins to have anxious, panicked thoughts about the stalled train. Rufus gives him a lego set to build to calm him down and distracts him by asking Mateo where he’d like to travel to. Mateo begins to calm down, but he’s exhausted and can barely stay awake. He falls asleep, feeling safe and protected by Rufus who takes a picture of Mateo because he thinks he’s beautiful. At 10:39 AM, the power comes back on, and the train resumes. Before Mateo wakes up, he has a scary dream. Rufus wakes him up and assures him he’s safe. Mateo regrets that the last dream he’ll ever have was a nightmare.
The story switches back to Delilah Grey’s point of view as she finds out that she’s going to get to sit in on Howie Maldonado’s End Day interview. She is still convinced that her Death-Cast call was a prank and that she’s not dying. Meanwhile, Mateo and Rufus arrive at the cemetery. It’s 11:32 AM. As they head to Mateo’s mom’s grave, they talk about the possibility of an afterlife and what that would be like. They stop short when they see gravediggers preparing Mateo’s grave next to his mother’s. Rufus gets the gravediggers to leave and gives Mateo privacy. Mateo asks his mother to watch over him and help him have a good End Day. He sits in his own half-dug grave until Rufus comes back, and the two talk about Althea Park and how it has special meaning for both of them. They also talk about fate. Mateo believes everyone has a fate and Rufus believes everything is self-determined. As they leave, Rufus asks Mateo to tell him more about fate and the afterlife he’s envisioned.
Analysis
he ditch full of payphones represents a powerful exploration of the idea of impermanence and obsolescence. Like human lives, the payphones do not exist as useful objects forever. As the boys list all the things that used to be so vital and necessary and important but have now outlived their purpose, the implication is that mortality is absolute. Everyone dies, the only difference for Deckers is that they know when they’re going to die and have at least some time on their End Day to come to terms with their mortality. Mateo’s words about how people often take life and the people and things in it for granted illustrate the passivity of human existence. These musings, juxtaposed with the obsolete objects, imply that people should be proactive in their lives and respect and honor the impermanence of life.
Tagoe's musings in jail reveal the importance of cherishing people and valuing relationships. When Tagoe insists that he would not spend his End Day looking for the mother who abandoned him or finding out why his father took his own life, the implication is that people should devote their time to those who actually want to be in their lives. This idea connects to the growing friendship between Mateo and Rufus. Although the boys begin their End Days as strangers and both of them give each other opportunities to back out and spend their day with others, they commit to one another. As their bond strengthens, they confide in one another and learn to value each other. Mateo learns how being around Rufus helps him to come out of his shell, while Rufus sees Mateo as a model for thoughtfulness and mindfulness. It’s because they recognize and honor wanting to be together that Mateo challenges himself to take risks and Rufus allows himself to seek closure for his grief.
The existential question of whether or not individuals have free will or are moved through life by fate is introduced in this section without any resolution. The appearance of Kendrick “Knockout King” O’Connell adds a thread to this quandary. Mateo already shared the story of the barefoot boy he helped, so seeing Kendrick’s connection to Peck foreshadows another intersection between Kendrick and Mateo. This raises the question of whether Mateo and Kendrick are fated to cross paths twice or if Mateo’s choice in giving Kendrick his shoes as an act of free will result in a future action on Kendrick’s part. The idea of fate also comes into play with Mateo and Rufus themselves and whether their friendship is a coincidence or fated to happen. They have similarities that seem coincidental, including both having deceased family members, both knowing and loving Althea Park, and both having emotional issues with which they struggle. Their compatibility and the way they help to foster growth and development in each other could also be interpreted as evidence of something pre-ordained. Either way, the boys’ End Day suggests that it really doesn’t matter. What counts the most is how people enjoy their time whether they have control over their choices or not.
Mateo and Rufus’s differences in beliefs about the afterlife reveal another way the boys serve as foils for one another. Like Andrea, Rufus believes Deckers are already dead. This conviction serves Rufus because it keeps him from being burdened with a sense of responsibility or purpose other than to enjoy himself. The cracks in that philosophy show when he considers the Plutos: how he didn’t get to fully say goodbye and his guilt over Malcolm and Tagoe being in jail on his behalf. In contrast, Mateo envisions an afterlife in which people have access to everything they’ve ever said or done, like a movie they can watch. His vision reveals how he is still burdened with anxiety over the things he’s afraid he got wrong in his life. Like Rufus, however, Mateo has his doubts and concedes that Rufus’s version of an afterlife might be more accurate than his own, illustrating how the boys are influencing one another.
