Noughts And Crosses

Sephy’s mother commands her to get dressed in her most expensive dress, which also happens to be the dress she wore to Lynette’s funeral, but her mother refuses to tell her why. Her mother has returned to her old bitter self. Her father picks up the family in his official government vehicle and remains cold and distant despite being gone for over a week. Her father’s lack of warmth hurts and confuses Sephy. When they arrive at the prison, Sephy is still confused as to what is going on. They take their seats in the courtyard of the prison, and Sephy notices that “at the far end of the courtyard was a scaffold” (316). She and Callum lock eyes across the courtyard. Sephy soon realizes that they are about to witness the execution of Callum’s father, who has been found guilty of all seven murder charges and denied an appeal, and she attempts to leave. Her mother slaps her and forces her to stay. Sephy refuses to look at the scaffold and locks eyes again with Callum, who glares at her. The crowd watches as the executioners prepare the hanging, and they wait as the clock to ticks down to six o’clock. Callum’s father shouts, “Long live the Liberation Militia…” as the chapter closes.

Just as Callum’s father is about to be hanged, the prison governor stops the execution. The executioners remove the hood from Ryan McGregor’s head, and the governor announces to the crowd that Callum’s father’s “sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment” (321). Callum rushes to the scaffold to see his father and gets caught in the chaos of the crowd. He looks to see if he can find Sephy, bitter and angry that she was there and believing she was enjoying the spectacle. He revels in the chaos and rage until his mother stops him and pulls him to the side. He follows begrudgingly and seethes with hatred for Crosses.

Back at home, Sephy yells at her mother for taking her to the execution. Her mother explains that it was the family’s duty to be there to give the appearance of support for her father and that she didn’t want to be there either. Sephy accuses her mother of lying and throws her wine bottle across the kitchen in frustration. Her mother slaps her again and reveals that she was the anonymous benefactor who funded Ryan McGregor’s legal team, which Sephy feels is just because her mother felt guilty not because she was actually doing anything benevolent. Sephy runs up to her room and cries.

Callum and his mother are finally allowed to visit his father in prison. Callum notices how “stooped and shrunken” his father looks (327), and Ryan expresses that he wishes he had been executed. His father’s attorney Kelani Adams enters, congratulates them on the reprieve, and begins discussing next steps for an appeal. Ryan McGregor rejects these plans for an appeal and tells them that he will find a way to escape from the prison. The guard who is posted at the door politely tells Ryan that the prison is too well secured for any escape plan to work, but Ryan is determined. Ryan breaks off the meeting without saying goodbye to his wife or son.

Callum throws stones at Sephy’s window and wakes her up. She allows him to climb up to her room and lets him in. Sephy locks her bedroom door for safety, but Callum has a moment of thinking she might be running for help. Callum accuses Sephy’s father of using his father as a scapegoat to gain acceptance in the polls and rejects Sephy’s attempts to comfort him. Callum tells Sephy that he hates her. She realizes in this moment that Callum started hating her the minute she called him a blanker on his first day at Heathcroft. Callum tells Sephy that she started hating him when he did not stand up for her in the cafeteria. Sephy then confesses her love for Callum. He claims that love and friendship do not exist “between a nought and a Cross” (334). They begin to kiss and cuddle. Sephy apologizes to Callum for sitting at his lunch table and for arriving to Lynette’s funeral unannounced. He accepts her apology, and Sephy drifts off to sleep with Callum holding her.

Callum watches Sephy sleep. He kisses her, waking her, and Sephy kisses him back. Callum grows angry at Sephy again but then apologizes, and she falls back asleep. Callum whispers a confession into Sephy’s ear, which will later be revealed to be that he loves her though the reader is not privy to it at this time.

Sephy’s mother and her secretary Sarah call for Sephy to open the door. Sephy awakens and sees Callum sleeping next to her. Callum hides in the bathroom as Sephy opens the door. As she tries to get her mother and Sarah out of her room quickly, Sephy sees Sarah notice Callum’s shoes next to her bed. Sarah hides the shoes under Sephy’s bed without Sephy’s mother noticing and then whispers to Sephy to get Callum out of there as fast as possible on her way out of the room. The couple devise a plan to get Callum out of the house but get back in the bed together for a bit longer first.

Chapter 82 is comprised of a newspaper article announcing the death of Callum’s father four days after his reprieve. It details how Callum’s father was killed by an electrified fence as he tried to escape from the prison.

The next chapter is just a letter from Sephy to God asking him to “please leave Callum’s family alone” (345). She questions whether it is God or the devil who is responsible for Callum’s pain. She concludes it is actually humans who are responsible for hate. She asks God to protect Callum, his family, and everyone.

Callum waits in line at a burger bar. Some time has passed since Callum’s father’s death, and the days are long and empty. He has not seen Sephy since their night together in her room, as Sarah has hired a guard to patrol Sephy’s house so he can’t sneak in again. Though he returns to the beach occasionally, Callum feels that he can’t recapture the good times he had there with Sephy, so he never stays. He sits down to eat his burger thinking about how his mother is more and more distant. Jude soon appears and takes a seat across from Callum. He offers Callum an opportunity to join the Liberation Militia and “to make a difference” (349). Callum says yes, and Jude tells him to pack and say his goodbyes before tomorrow.

Sephy writes a letter to Callum. She proposes that she and Callum run away together to “set up together. Stay together. Save each other” (351). She informs Callum that she has enough money to support them and that her mother has agreed to let her attend boarding school. She leaves for boarding school on Sunday and instructs Callum to tell her his answer before then. Sephy asks Sarah to deliver the letter to Callum, and Sarah reluctantly agrees. Sephy is optimistic that Callum will agree to her plan.

Callum is packing his belongings when his mother comes to tell him that Sarah is downstairs looking for him. She understands and accepts that he is joining LM and asks him to be safe and to tell his brother to be safe too. He refuses to see Sarah because he believes she is there to lecture him about being with Sephy. His mother informs him about the letter Sarah left for him, but, still believing it is just a written reprimand from Sarah, he tells her he will pick it up tomorrow with his other belongings. He is looking forward to his mission because he feels like he finally belongs. The goodbye between Callum and his mother is emotionless.

Sephy prepares to head to boarding school and anxiously waits to see if Callum will show up. Her sister Minnie says goodbye. Their mother has demanded Minnie stay behind because she is the oldest and has important exams coming up. Sephy promises Minnie she will try to stop drinking, and Minnie kisses her on the cheek in an unusual display of affection. Sephy gets in the car to go to boarding school, but she wonders why Callum didn’t come for her like she had planned in her letter.

Callum rushes to Sephy’s house, but the car with her and her mother in it is already pulling away. He chases after the car shouting for them to stop, but he falls, and they do not see him.