Clean Getaway

Scoob can’t help but ask if the RV was made in Tennessee, pointing out the license plate as they leave Meridian. He asks to borrow her phone to call Shenice but G’ma says it isn’t safe to move around in the RV while they’re driving—a contradiction to when she’s asked him to get her things before, he notices. He pretends to dial the number but instead listens to a voicemail from his dad. In it, James tells her to call him back and that the “authorities” came by looking for her.

He asks to call his dad, but G’ma says to wait until later. He turns it off, and G’ma approves, saying that they’re headed “off the grid” (126).

They’re headed to Jackson, Mississippi. G’ma tells Scoob that she and G’pop got together in 1961 but couldn’t get married because it was legal for interracial couples to marry before 1967. She explains that there was a couple in Virginia who were convicted for marrying in secret. When the Supreme Court overturned the ruling, she and G’pop were thrilled and got married.

She stops at the home of Medgar Evers, who was a World War II veteran and Civil Rights Activist. G’ma has him get a radio, but it turns out to be a flask. Scoob is shocked. She thanks “Jimmy” for being there, and Scoob tries to correct her.

Frustrated, Scoob asks what they’re doing here. G’ma continues to give background to Medgar Evers, saying that he helped African Americans register to vote and drew attention to the injustice of Emmett Till’s murder. Emmett Till is a name Scoob knows because James mentioned him and how Black boys can get in trouble just because someone white blames them. Scoob was shook up when he’d learned what happened to Emmett Till. G’ma adds that Medgar Evers was killed in his driveway and that it took 30 years to send his murderer to jail.

When she and G’pop tried driving here before, she’d been the one to insist, even though Jimmy said it was a bad omen. They were pulled over right after she got off the highway. She immediately became concerned for G’pop’s life, and Scoob asks if it was a Sundown Town, a place where the town would turn a blind eye if someone killed a Black person there.

The officers didn’t know that G’pop was in the RV and were suspicious if anything else illegal was on board, but they let G’ma off. It shook her up, later causing them to turn around. She blames herself for them not making it to Mexico.

Scoob begins to wonder if it’s still a bad omen.

They pass the Edwards, Mississippi exit, and G’ma remembers it as the exit where she and G’pop turned around. G’ma pulls over onto the shoulder of the highway. Scoob asks why they turned around, and G’ma explains that it was because of Scoob’s dad. She realized she was pregnant with him during the trip. They turned around because they weren’t sure if they’d be able to find a doctor who would treat a white woman with a Black man’s child. Returning to Atlanta was the safest choice.

G’ma smiles; it’s the farthest she’s ever made it. When she goes to the restroom, however, Scoob can’t help but think about the mentions of “trouble” and theft, and reasons for not returning to Atlanta. He wonders who his grandma really is.

They stop in Monroe, Louisiana, and as G’ma gets ready for bed, Scoob looks for her phone, deciding to call his dad. Looking around, he sees a compartment behind the kitchen TV. Inside, there are four piles of money. He knows it could be from her selling her house, but he remembers how she just mentioned “contraband” when talking about being pulled over.

Feeling like he must call someone but afraid of leaving the RV, he looks in G’ma’s treasure box for the phone. He finds her old driver’s license and a variety of other knickknacks. He doesn’t see the earrings from earlier, and the phone is nowhere to be found. He feels homesick.

Scoob dreams of being home but being a ghost. In the dream, his grandma’s voice comes out of his dad. It turns into a nightmare as his dad comes closer to him with a pillow.

Eventually, he falls back to sleep.