The Ballad of Black Tom

In Part 2, the narrative is from Detective Malone’s point of view. The story picks up with Malone in Harlem after he has informed “the Negro,” which is how he refers to Tommy, of his father’s death. Malone and Howard ride out to Flushing, Queens, to deliver the page Howard recovered at the Testers’ residence (it in Otis’s guitar). Before they get on the train, Malone and Howard see Tommy playing his guitar on the platform. The sight of him playing with his eyes closed is disturbing, and they avoid him by waiting at the other end of the platform.

Malone has always been sensitive to otherworldly forces, and when they arrive at Ma Att’s house, he is shocked to see a hulking black form behind Ma Att. Howard seems oblivious to it, only interested in collecting their payment and leaving. Ma Att reveals that the yellow book contains the Supreme Alphabet. She notices that Malone can see the shape emanating from her and taunts him by telling him to come in her house and see “all the things [she] can spell with a little spilled blood” (86).