Summary

An adult Albie shows up unexpectedly in New York City at Jeanette’s apartment, heavily tattooed and sporting a long, dark braid. Jeanette is now married to a Guinean epidemiologist, Fodé, with a son named Calvin, or "Dayo." Albie has disappeared from his family for several years, and has reemerged to his longtime partner-in-younger-sibling misery, Jeanette. It is told alternatively from both of their points of view. Only snatches of where Albie has been are revealed; he has been out of contact with the family for years, living in California and working as a heroin-addicted bike messenger. He quickly finds work in NYC as a bike messenger, and stays with Jeanette and Fodé.

Chapter Five delves more deeply into the events surrounding Cal's death and the changes that event created, ranging from his mother's avoidance of his favorite frozen pizza to an end...