Pigeon English

This month begins with Harri and Dean on a stakeout for the killer, carefully observing everyone who passes them for what they deemed proof of guilt culled from Dean’s television knowledge. Dean explains DNA to Harri and why it is so helpful in solving crimes.

Back at the apartment towers, Harri’s mother is asking Auntie Sonia to explain how she hurt herself and ended up with a bandaged nose and bruised eye. Auntie Sonia blames her own clumsiness and goes quiet when Julius reenters the room.

At school, Poppy shows Harri how to write their initials into a desk to memorialize their love: P.M. + H.O. I.D.S.T. (“If Destroyed Still True”). Harri recalls, “[i]t felt brutal seeing it there. It felt important” (164). He values what he has with Poppy and is thrilled and relieved that sex does not have to be involved, making it even better to have her as his girlfriend.

Later, Harri and Lydia are watching the news and the newscaster is talking about the dead boy and entreating anyone with information to come forward. Harri watches Lydia’s face closely, observing that “her face was all sad like she knew him” (168). Harri continues to think about the dead boy and wonders if the boy is in heaven.