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Summary
At 12:22 PM, Mateo realizes that he is halfway through his End Day. He also realizes that with Rufus, he’s living a better life than he ever did before. As they walk, Rufus doesn’t think they’re headed anywhere in particular. However, when they get to the pier, Mateo suggests to Rufus that he use the location over the Hudson River to say goodbye to his family. Rufus is nervous, but he talks to Mateo about how his survivor’s guilt stems from swimming away from his parents and sister and saving himself. He tells Mateo how both his parents reached for the door so he could escape from drowning, seeming to passively accept their deaths. Mateo gives Rufus privacy, and Rufus cries for his parents and sister, for Aimee’s betrayal, and for the fact that he just met Mateo and their time is running out. After, he tells Mateo it was a good idea to let himself finally feel his feelings. As they leave, they pass Delilah Grey, who is heading to a bookstore to get Howie Maldonado’s latest book.
The story briefly switches to the point of view of a decker named Vin Pearce. Vin is very angry and bitter that he’s been called by Death-Cast. He’s decided that if he’s going to die, he’s not going to do it alone. As arrives at his old gym where he plans to plant a homemade bomb, he bumps into Rufus, who reacts angrily. Mateo pulls Rufus away to avoid conflict. Vin enters the gym and begins to set up the bomb. The story switches back to Mateo’s point of view. It is 12:58 PM. Mateo says he wants to go into the bookstore beside the gym Vin just entered with his bomb. As they browse, Mateo decides to buy a book to leave for someone to find and some postcards he plans to send to people he had crushes on. Rufus asks Mateo if he’s ever dated, and they talk about love. Just as Mateo asks Rufus how to know when love is real, Vin’s bomb goes off. Although people are hurt and killed, the boys survive. Rufus realizes how terrified he is of dying, and Mateo finally agrees to ride on Rufus’s bike so they can quickly get away from the scene of the bombing.
The story switches to Deirdre Clayton’s point of view in another part of the city. It is at 1:50 PM Deirdre climbs onto the ledge of her apartment building’s roof. She did not get the call from Death-Cast, but she wants to die. She works at Make-a-Moment, and she feels bad about the fake experiences she sells there, including to the two boys she met earlier that morning: Mateo and Rufus. She thinks about a short story she’s written about an alternative world where a branch of Death-Cast called Life-Cast exists. Life-Cast informs Deckers of when they will be reincarnated so their families and friends will know how to find them in their next life. Deirdre feels sad Life-Cast is not real. Just as she’s ready to jump, she looks down and sees two boys on a bike. It’s Mateo and Rufus, but she doesn’t recognize them from such a high height. She simply sees two boys living, and that is enough to inspire her to back away from the ledge.
Analysis
Mateo and Rufus both experience the power of grief and getting closure. Mateo’s desire for Rufus to pursue closure for his grief the way he experienced it at his mother’s grave illustrates the tender, supportive dynamic between the boys. However, Rufus’s hesitance and skepticism reveal the depths of his grief and his desire to avoid confronting the powerful feelings related to his family’s death. When Rufus finally shares his story of crashing into the Hudson River with his parents and sister, Rufus becomes vulnerable to Mateo in a way he’s never allowed himself to be before. Mateo represents a place of safety for Rufus, and it is only with Mateo’s support and influence that Rufus is able to access the depth of his sorrow and grief—not only for his lost family but for his own impending death. When Rufus returns to Mateo and admits that the experience was painful but healing for him, it reveals he has learned the importance of honoring feelings, even negative ones.
A new character, Vin Pearce, emerges in the story as a dark juxtaposition to Mateo and Rufus. Where the boys are actively trying to make peace with their deaths and find ways to be constructive during their End Day, Vin Pearce has no such impulses. Where the boys find friendship and reflect on love, Vin has only rage and bitterness. The bomb Vin creates and ultimately detonates is symbolic of the destructive power of negative emotions that are never dealt with. It is implied that Rufus was dangerously close to becoming like Vin when he was beating Peck at the beginning of the novel. It’s his End Day relationship with Mateo, who encourages Rufus to be thoughtful and hopeful, that turns Rufus away from the anger and hopelessness that have made Vin a vengeful and suicidal man who wants to take as many people as possible along with him when he dies. Vin’s End Day contrasts dramatically with Mateo and Rufus’s experiences because they want to become their best selves and celebrate their connections with others rather than be guided by destructive fury.
Mateo and Rufus’s growing feelings are foreshadowed in their conversation about love and relationships in the bookstore. As they talk about crushes and love, Mateo’s revelation that his father warned him that love is often found in unexpected places implies that the boys are falling in love with one another but aren’t ready to face it or declare it yet. The fact that the boys have evolved from strangers to friends to something far deeper illustrates the theme of the power and complexity of love. When the bomb goes off, both boys are knocked out of any false sense of safety for not only their physical selves but also their emotional selves. Their first thoughts in the aftermath are of each other, and it’s clear that the power of love has become a driving force within them.
