Invisible Son

Once Marcus leaves, Andre watches the news with his grandfather. Although Grandpa soon falls asleep, Andre stays nearby, thinking about how he wishes he’d gone over to his friend Boogie’s house on New Year’s Eve. He regrets agreeing to go with Sierra Whitaker to a New Year’s party to keep an eye on her brother Eric. Andre thinks about how Eric and Sierra—who are adopted—had never been taught what it meant to be Black in America and how Eric didn’t recognize that he couldn’t do things that white kids could. Andre didn’t want to be his chaperone. The party ended early, and Andre discovered that, once again, Eric and their friend Gavin had stolen from other drunk teenagers while at the party. The stolen goods were later found in Andre’s locker.

Mr. Whitaker helped Andre get a lawyer, and Andre discovered that his friends weren’t suspects. Ultimately, they decided that it made more sense for Andre to plead guilty since there was no evidence that Eric and Gavin had robbed people before and that it was possible the charge would be made worse, sending Andre to prison.

When dinner’s ready, they ultimately decide to eat without Andre’s father because he has to work late. Andre thinks that when he’d pictured coming home, he’d imagined his parents there. He also thinks that it would help to put the past behind him, as well as the fact that he protected Eric by not saying anything about him to the police.

Andre stares at the Whitaker house. He wants to know that Eric isn’t stealing anymore. He sees Eric’s other siblings, Brian, Kate, and Luis, return home. Brian and Kate are the Whitakers’ biological children. Luis, like Sierra and Eric, is adopted. Then, Sierra—whom Andre has long had a crush on—appears. He hasn’t heard from her since before he went to juvie. She spots him and leaves the door open, a signal for him to come over. He goes in, and they hug.

Following Sierra to join her family for dinner, Andre stops by her father’s office, going in alone. Mr. Whitaker exclaims that he’s thrilled that Andre is home. Andre’s case inspired him to run for a city commissioner seat on a platform built on changes to the justice system. Andre volunteers to help with his campaign as a thank you for all his help.

Andre enters the kitchen and sees all the Whitaker siblings. When Kate comes in, Mrs. Whitaker reports that she got into Brown University. Later, as Andre hangs out with the siblings, he learns that Kate forged her acceptance letter. When Andre finally asks where Eric is, he discovers that Eric left when Andre was arrested. Sierra leaves the basement. Kate criticizes her brother for being ungrateful.

Andre’s phone rings, and Grandma J asks that he comes home. He knows that his mom wouldn’t like that he’s there since she doesn’t like the Whitakers. He thinks that the trips he’s taken with them are all things that he wouldn’t be able to do with his family since they’re expensive.

When he goes to say goodbye to Sierra upstairs, he discovers that another student, Paul Chase, is over. It looks like they’re more than friends. Andre feels overwhelmed when Paul kisses Sierra on the cheek, and he waves goodbye. He hears Sierra chastise him.

The next day, February 28, Andre tosses and turns in bed, dreaming of juvie. His mom comes in and encourages him to go back to sleep. She doesn’t know that he was jumped his first night at MacLaren. Andre starts crying, thinking of all the awful experiences he had and how he kept them from her. He tells her everything. They talk about Andre’s father and how he missed dinner. His mom is reluctant to admit that he’s already returned to work. She tries to emphasize that he’s happy that Andre is home.

Andre goes downstairs and finds his grandparents having breakfast. He also sees news about the coronavirus spreading in the United States. President Trump is holding a rally, bragging that the US is taking harsh measures to stop it. Grandma J comments that they should stock up on supplies in case the virus gets worse and asks Andre to help. He decides that he’ll use it as an excuse to hang out with Boogie.

Later, Andre runs into a dog while taking out the garbage, and its owner, Mrs. Glendale, tells him that the neighborhood doesn’t like when people go through their garbage, mistaking him for a person who is unhoused. Andre responds with his name and the fact that they’ve met before. She walks away.

After school, Boogie comes by Andre’s. They leave to run errands, spotting Sierra and Paul as they depart. Andre asks him how long Sierra has been seeing Paul. When they talk about school, Boogie explains that there’s a rumor that the school might shut down because of the coronavirus.

Finally, they talk about Eric, and Andre worries that his leaving had something to do with what happened to him. He wonders if Eric—who is the only person who had his work locker combination—put the stolen goods in his backpack. He doesn’t want to believe it.

Boogie pulls up at Andre’s dad’s bookshop, even though Andre said that he didn’t need to stop and see him. He says that all the men in the Jackson family are stubborn. Andre thinks that maybe he subconsciously asked for Boogie’s help so that he could come with him to see his dad.

Andre spots a large line outside of the coffee shop adjacent to his father’s bookstore. He stares at the mural and how it documents the history of Black families in Portland after flooding forced them to move to the northeast part of the city. The floodgates had given way, despite the city’s warnings to Black residents that they were secure. On the mural, a ship takes Black residents to the bookstore, although the Albina neighborhood is the historical destination.

Andre and Boogie go inside, and Andre’s father, Malcolm, greets them, emphasizing that he’d planned to be home for dinner. Malcolm and Andre hug, and Andre is reminded that his father has always been there for him. His father advocated for him while also teaching him how to apologize even when people treated him unfairly because of his race.

They agree that Andre can start helping in the store for work, but Andre senses that his father doesn’t trust him like he used to. Andre and Boogie leave to run the rest of their errands.

When Andre and Boogie get back to Andre’s grandparents’ house, Marcus is there. He asks to speak with Andre alone and emphasizes that Andre should let him know when he’s out of the house. His trip had been flagged as “risky activity” (58). Marcus warns him that it was his former juvenile counselor, a white man nicknamed “Cowboy Jim,” who had advocated for Andre to have an ankle monitor. Jim is working with Andre’s arresting officer to look into further charges, and Andre emphasizes that he had bad luck and didn’t do anything wrong.

Later, Boogie convinces Andre to log into his YouTube account, where the last video uploaded was a livestream. He was going to go through his top songs of 2019 when the police arrived, showing his arrest online in real time. Boogie asks if he’ll try to get revenge on Gavin for letting Andre take the fall for the robberies. Andre says that he’s letting it go. He asks Boogie to check out Eric’s favorite places to hang out because he really wants to talk to him.

Boogie suggests that they make a YouTube reaction video and shows Andre that his follower count on YouTube has risen above 10,000. His channel is filled with him listening to 1980s and 1990s music for the first time, and he agrees to make a video with Boogie now. They announce that they’re back. Andre feels his stress leaving him.

Sierra taps at Andre’s window and then joins as they make more reaction videos. When Sierra isn’t looking, Boogie teases Andre about his crush. Then, he leaves. Sierra stays to listen to more music and finally admits to missing him.

Andre immediately wonders why she never responded to his letters but says that he didn’t know if she’d be open to even seeing him. She explains that him being in juvie reminded her of her family before she entered the foster system, as she watched her mom go to jail. She didn’t want to feel like she couldn’t help him. He replies that he didn’t need her to save him, only to get him through his time there. He asks if she read his letters.

Initially, she reports, her dad kept them from her, saying that he was holding them until the time was right. When she found them in his desk drawer, he let her keep them, but she worried that if she wrote back, her parents would only hide Andre’s responses. Taking his hand, she adds that things have been hard since Eric left. Andre asks if she thinks Eric went to find their mother, but she doesn’t think so. They agree that their friendship is all right. They record another YouTube video.

Afterward, they almost kiss, but Andre spots bruises on her wrist and asks what happened. She moves her hand away and makes an excuse to leave.

Grandma J comes in without knocking and has two slices of pie in hand. She warns him not to be distracted by his crash because she doesn’t want him to get hurt.

Grandma J and Andre go sit on the porch, eating pie. She recalls when the Whitakers were fostering Sierra and Eric the first time. They were moved to another foster family, and watching Sierra go had made Andre cry. Grandma J says that’s when she knew that Andre could love someone so much that he could become heartbroken. She tells him that he can’t fix someone else; he can only do the best he can and hope that his partner does the same. Sierra, she explains, wants someone who won’t leave, and Andre did. She sends Andre to deliver pie for Luis and Sierra.

Andre sees Luis sitting on the roof and smoking. Luis comes down to eat his slice, joining Andre on his grandparents’ porch. They talk about school, and Andre asks about him smoking. Luis says that he isn’t acting out. Andre asks about Eric, and Luis says that Eric probably fled because he was scared of being arrested.

Luis goes home. Andre sends a message to Eric on social media. He says that he hopes Eric knows that he was loyal to him and hopes that Eric won’t blame him for anything else. Andre also finds a list of reaction videos he made before going to juvie with a note from Sierra that says, “[B]een watching these since you’ve been gone” (86). He takes this as a good sign.