Alice and James Stone (Children)

At the beginning of the novel, a prologue introduces Alice and James Stone, two children growing up in Emancipation, North Carolina. James is older by a few years, but the two siblings are extremely close. They like to play a game where they will sit on the ground, the flats of their feet touching. Then one of them writes a word on a chalk board and the other draws a picture of it with his own chalkboard. They are correct each time. Their mother doesn't like them to play the game, however, so they do it in secret. It is a special bond that they have until many years later.

Alice and James find a boy who has been lynched when they are out in the woods chasing an old sow. As they are both African American children, they are terrified to see a...