Darkness Before Dawn

In early December, Cincinnati is hit by a blizzard that forces the schools to shut down. Taking advantage of the snow day opportunity, Jonathan organizes a group ski trip and invites Keisha to go along. Because she will be among her friends, Keisha doesn’t consider this a date.

While on the ski lift together, Jonathan and Keisha start a conversation. Keisha is impressed by Jonathan’s knowledge of the world:

I found on the ride that Jonathan was easy to talk to, and seemed to have been everywhere and done everything. He had skied in Switzerland, had taken hot-air balloon rides in Kenya, and had even been scuba diving in Australia (92).

Jonathan behaves very politely during their outing, and everyone has a good time. Keisha senses that the emotional wall she erected after Andy’s death is beginning to come down. 

The following day is another snow day for students, so Jalani calls to invite Keisha to accompany her to visit Gerald and Angel. Jalani brings homemade soup, hoping to coax Angel to eat. On the street outside Gerald’s building, the girls encounter a woman who has no home named Edna. Feeling pity, Jalani offers Edna the soup. She cheerfully accepts and says, “I like my life. I got no bills, no obligations, no worries. I got friends here on the streets and a warm place to sleep on these winter nights” (100).

When the girls arrive upstairs, they find Gerald trying to get Angel to eat. It takes her almost an hour to finish a baked potato because her stomach isn’t used to food. Gerald is frustrated that Angel’s teacher has said that all great dancers are anorexic, and she encourages her students to starve themselves. He wants his sister to take a break from dancing, and Jalani offers to find Angel a different dance school to attend.

Jonathan organizes a group outing to see a movie, and he invites Keisha to go. Her parents are concerned about the young man’s intentions. They don’t like that Jonathan is 23 and their daughter is only 18. Despite their reservations, they agree to let Keisha go to the movies. Keisha says, “I knew that my mother was glad to see that I was at least showing some interest in dating again. She could see I was trying to peek out of the hole I had gone into when Andy died” (107).

The outing goes well. After Jonathan drops all the other kids back home, he sits in his car with Keisha and tells her about his upbringing. His father was in the military, and his hypercritical mother left when he was 13. He confesses that no matter how hard he tried, he could never make his mother love him. Keisha realizes that Jonathan had a disturbing childhood, but she dismisses her concerns about his emotional stability. When he accompanies her to her front door, he behaves like a perfect gentleman. On Christmas Eve, Keisha receives a bouquet of roses from an anonymous admirer, but she assumes the flowers are from Jonathan.

On Christmas Eve afternoon, Keisha still needs to buy one more present for her mother. She drives around the neighborhood until she finds a flower shop. Much to her surprise, her classmate, Leon, works there. Leon is the class clown, and Keisha can scarcely recognize the serious young man behind the counter. He explains that his father owns the shop, and he is working late for the holiday. Keisha is intrigued to see this new side of someone she’s known since kindergarten. Leon tells Keisha, “You were always pretty and popular—like a butterfly—fluttering and shining for others to admire. People like to hang around you. Me, I’m the class fool. I stub my toe in front of the class to get a laugh” (125).

During their conversation, Keisha learns that Leon’s mother had schizophrenia and was eventually institutionalized. She ended her life by walking into the ocean. Keisha is saddened by the story and realizes how much tragedy the class clown has endured. After purchasing a plant, she offers Leon a ride home. At his house, Leon’s father recognizes Keisha because all of her class pictures are posted in his son’s room. Leon is embarrassed by the disclosure but says he isn’t a stalker. He has simply always admired Keisha.

On Christmas morning, Keisha receives a disturbing phone call informing her that Rob’s younger sister Joyelle has been involved in a car accident. Keisha immediately springs into action and calls all her friends. They descend on the hospital together to find out what happened.

Joyelle’s parents are fearful that they might lose their daughter in a car accident the same way they lost their son. As it turns out, Joyelle only sustains minor injuries. When everyone is allowed to visit her, she explains her accident. That morning, she says that her parents were arguing, and she couldn’t stand any more turmoil in her life. She simply wanted to escape, so she took her father’s car keys, even though she doesn’t know how to drive. She says, “The car rolled into the empty street like it knew what to do. I wasn’t even thinking. I was mad at Rob for being dead and mad at both of you, Mommy and Daddy, for everything at home being so messed up” (132-33).

Joyelle drove for five miles, unsure where she wanted to go, when she collided with another vehicle. Her accident is a wake-up call for her parents, who vow to let nothing separate them again. After the crisis passes, Keisha returns home. On the front mat, she discovers that a red box with a silver ribbon has been left for her. Running upstairs to open the box in secret, she finds a butterfly pendant. There’s no card, but she knows the gift must be from Jonathan and is quite pleased with it.