Boy21

Finley goes to the hospital every day to try to read Harry Potter to Erin, and every day he is denied access to her room. Mr. Gore encourages him to keep trying. A week later, Erin is moved to a different building but no one will tell Finley where. He runs around the hospital trying to find her before he is removed by a security guard. Because he is no longer allowed at the hospital, Finley starts hanging around the Quinns’ house, which is sold a week later. When movers come to get the furniture, Finley tries to ask them where they are taking it, but they tell him to leave.

Finley questions everyone, including Mr. Gore and Coach, who tells Finley to leave it alone. Finley breaks into the Quinns’ old house, but no trace of them remains except the smell of Erin’s peach shampoo. Time collapses again, and Finley only thinks of Erin.

Distraught, one day he goes to the Irish Pride Pub after school, asking to speak to Rod Quinn. Terrifying men ignore him, and the bartender tells him to go home, but Finley won’t leave. One of the guys, Lewis, forces Finley to call his father, and his grandfather picks up, horrified at what Finley has done. Lewis takes Finley outside to wait, but Finley won’t let up about Erin. Lewis says Finley was lucky he intercepted him, and that Finley just shouldjust wait until everything quietsdown.

When Finley’s dad comes to get him, Lewis explains the situation, saying that now Finley’s dad owes him a favor. Finley’s dad tells Finley he has to stop asking questions, and when they get home, Finley’s grandfather yells the same thing at him. Pop explains that Rod probably did “something big” (213) to get out of the organization, and so now he must disappear to avoid retribution by “powerful enemies” (213). Pop and Finley’s dad both reiterate that Finley should do and say nothing for now. 

Russ tries to get Finley reinvested in basketball by suggesting they shoot hoops a few times a week. Finley doesn’t want to, so Russ convinces him to take ten shots.Russ explains that Erin’s accident helped wake him up: “then it was like I started moving forward again and you started moving backward” (215). Russ apologizes for taking Finley’s position, but thanks Finley for helping “cure” him via basketball. Finley takes take ten shots, but decides he’s done with basketball. The boys go up to the roof to talk and look at the sky.

Time collapses again, and Finley feels depressed: “I think about Erin every second of every day” (219). In this dreamlike state, Finley obsesses over why Erin has not contacted him.

A completely normal Russ now worries about Finley’s depression, which Finley doesn’t want to talk about. “It’s almost like I absorbed all of his craziness, like I was his leech, because he seems absolutely fine now, while I walk around school every day like I’m living on another plant” (221). Finley laments that no one seems to notice Erin’s absence, and Russ suggests he leave Bellmont, like Harry Potter. Russ says that Wes is a little mad at Finley for blowing off the book club, but Finley thinks Wes—and everyone else in Bellmont—has been distant to avoid repercussions from the Irish mob.

Russ tells Finley he’s going to take him somewhere once basketball season ends, and then they have a heated back-and-forth questionsession about everything—Erin, mental health, basketball, Boy21, parental death, silence—, neither of them exposing himself but coming to an agreement that “[m]aybe we were both playing roles just to get by” (223). Russ’s grandfather comes to pick up Russ, interrupting their conversation.