Long Division

City isn’t sure how to find Shalaya and Evan. He notices the Freedom School has a sign about registering to vote. Then he sees three figures in white sheets through the window. Suddenly, he feels “a shot to the back of [his] knees” (58). Three Klansmen stand over him. City begs for them to let him go and offers to show them how to use the computer in exchange for his life. The men tell him to be quiet, using racial slurs, but City keeps talking. The whole time he talks, he thinks about the things Mama Lara taught him about behaving in front of white people. Suddenly, Shalaya and Evan burst into the school. The Klansmen rush at Evan, and Shalaya and City flee. Shalaya helps City into the hole and explains that one of the Klansmen—specifically, the one they last saw beating Evan—is Evan’s uncle. Confused, City insists he has to get the computer back. Shalaya returns to the school, and Baize appears in the hole. She’s upset that City lost her computer and phone.

City tells Baize everything that’s going on, and she believes him because she “know[s] people can disappear” (64). Together, the friends return to Baize’s house in 2013.