The First Stone

These four chapters cover a lot of thematic ground. Aker has been building the tension toward the inevitable reveal that Reef is responsible for Leeza’s situation. In a wonderful bit of narrative symmetry, before the revelation, Aker shows the reader how Reef reacts to Jink’s traumatized body.

When Reef visits Jink in the hospital, he is horrified by the violence and the destruction that Rowdy visited upon him. In his newfound state of pondering his future, Reef understands that his former path would have eventually led him to a similar hospital bed or into a grave. Worse, he can also equate himself to Rowdy, even though he knows that he isn’t a criminal in the same way. He tells the group, “I put her in that place. Me. Like Rowdy did to Jink. Except Rowdy used his hands. Looked Jink in the face while he did it” (263).

For Reef, the main difference between Jink’s injuries and Leeza’s trauma is that Rowdy hurt Jink intentionally. Regardless, the result is the same for their victims—a lengthy, painful recovery that has nothing to do with the causes and motivations behind their injuries. Reef has grown in understanding right and wrong, actions and consequences, and Justice and Morality. The realizations are difficult but key to growth and Redemption and Forgiveness.

For a moment, Reef is so enraged by what Rowdy did to Jink that he wants revenge. He is briefly in danger of reverting to his old persona and habits. While he is on the bus going to find Rowdy, the significance of his earlier conversation with Alex becomes clear:

He thought about words. Thought about which ones got said and which ones didn’t. Like the words he wished he’d said to his grandfather. All those times he’d bitten them back. He’d told Alex some of those words the night before. He hadn’t planned to. They’d just come. And Alex had told him some of his own words…words his own father had used against him (250).

Whatever Reef’s pain has been, if he has ever contemplated suicide, there is no mention of it. Alex’s story about his hateful father is heartbreaking. He is another youth whose protectors did not protect him. Rather, the instrument of his greatest suffering was the man who was supposed to be his role model, protector, and mentor. Instead, he called his son anti-gay slurs, making him so miserable that death seemed his only escape. Alex’s vulnerability makes it possible for Reef to share his deepest truths. First, he shares some of his story with Alex. After the confrontation with Diane, he is comfortable enough to share the story with the entire group at North Hills.

When Frank tells Reef he is proud of him for letting go of his revenge and anger, he acts as the father figure that none of them has had. Reef gains—and, more importantly, accepts—the love and support of Frank and the group, just as he was truly beginning to believe that he might be in love with Leeza.

Diane’s reaction is harsh, but it is not irrational. She has never stopped trying to protect Leeza, and Reef is the immediate, unequivocal cause of her daughter’s pain. Even though Reef is changing for the better, the themes of justice and consequences do not obligate anyone to praise him for his progress or forgive him for his crime. Reef is on the path of legitimate rehabilitation, redemption, and morality, but he can’t insist that anyone view him from a new perspective.