Fire from the Rock

Reggie asks Sylvia is she is willing to talk to him when they see each other at church. Sylvia is still mad at Reggie, and the two haven’t spoken on the phone all week. Reggie tells Sylvia that he wants her to put him first and agree to attend Mann in the fall so she can focus on being “his girl.” Sylvia gets angry that he is trying to tell her what to do. Reggie explains his behavior with Candy by saying that he was scared about what was going to happen next year, but Sylvia isn’t convinced. He says he doesn’t want her to hang out with white people. She says, “White folks rule the world” (104), and if a person wants to be “somebody,” that’s who they have to be around. Reggie says he is mad that she is going to decide to go to Central. When he says again that he wants Sylvia to be his girl, she says, “I’ll think about it” and heads into the church (105), proud of how she handled the situation.

Gary has a heated exchange with his father about needing to get out of the house and hang out with people who want to make change happen faster. Gary says he will be hanging out with Reggie, among others. Sylvia thinks Reggie hanging out with Gary is not a good thing. When Gary leaves after dinner, Sylvia and her father discuss their concerns for him. Mr. Patterson says Gary looks and acts just like his own father, who ended up being hanged from the tree in their front yard when Mr. Patterson was just a kid. He fears that Gary could end up the same way. He tells Sylvia that he would lay down his life to protect her. He also says he does not understand young people today, but he put Sylvia’s name on that list, so he is trying to help make change happen. Sylvia writes a poem dedicated to Gary in her diary.