Summary

The work begins with a young Black boy sitting in his family’s apartment with his mother, father, brother, and sister during the first summer of the coronavirus pandemic. His father has Covid-19 and is quarantined in one of the bedrooms while the protests rage across the news following the killing of George Floyd. He is exhausted by his mother’s dependence on the news and the negative stories that remind him of the impossibility of changing the world for the better.

The boy remains unnamed throughout the narrative, but he wonders at the start of each section why his mother will not change the channel away from the depressing and violent news stories. He tries everything to engage his brother, who is focused intently on his video games, and his sister, who spends every moment texting her friends and planning to attend...