110 pages • 3 hours read
Varian JohnsonThe Parker Inheritance
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 12-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
In Chapter 12, the perspective shifts back to Enoch Washington as a young man. By eleven years old, Enoch is bigger than most other children and an excellent athlete. When Enoch gets into a fight with another student, his father talks to him about why it happened, and Enoch explains that the boy said he “was named after a slave” (62). Enoch’s father responds that he named Enoch “after [his] granddaddy. The last slave in this family… the first free man in this family” (63). Enoch’s father explains that rather than having Enoch grow up to pick cotton like his siblings, he wants Enoch to go to college.
By the time Enoch is in school at the Tuskegee Institute, he has acquired his nickname of Big Dub. Later, he graduates with a degree in mathematics and becomes a teacher, marrying another teacher named Leanne, whom he partially courts because of “her smooth, light brown skin” (65). By marrying a woman of a lighter complexion, Enoch knows that his children will be seen more favorably by society. Lil’ Dub, or Siobhan, was “perfect” (65) to Enoch when she was born.
Chapter 13 Summary
Back in the present day, Candice struggles with her feelings about how Milo had just treated Brandon. She wonders whether or not Brandon “really like[s] boys instead of girls” (67), realizing that she doesn’t know anyone for whom that is true. Her train of thought is broken by her father, Joe, pulling into the driveway in his truck. Without telling her dad about the letter or mystery, she talks to him about being friends with Brandon, getting insulted when he says that it “sounds like” (68) they went on a date. As Anne starts dinner, Joe asks Candice about how things have been going for her mom. Candice thinks about how long it took her mom to get back to normal after Abigail died.
Candice gets uncomfortable as her dad starts asking about whether or not Anne has been dating. She switches the subject by asking if she can borrow Joe’s laptop that has internet access. She takes out Joe’s iPod and they dance to their song: “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire.
Chapter 14 Summary
The next morning, Candice wakes up to the smell of pancakes. She’s excited, since her dad is the only one who can really cook. When she walks closer to the kitchen, she can hear her parents fighting. Joe offers to take Candice back to Atlanta, and Anne retorts, “Is Danielle no longer living at your apartment?” (73). Candice’s head swirls with questions, which aren’t resolved when she sits down for breakfast with her parents, both of whom are acting like nothing happened.
After breakfast, Joe takes Candice out and they purchase a laptop. On the drive, Candice tries gets up the courage to ask about Danielle but can’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she asks about her grandmother. Joe laughs when he sees that Candice is still wearing the bracelet but doesn’t really give her any other information. When they get back to the house, Joe and Brandon meet briefly. Brandon says he has some clothes from Tori to show Candice, so Candice asks permission to go across the street. Despite her father’s reluctance, Candice gets to go since her mom wants to finish her “talk from this morning” (76) with Joe.
Chapter 15 Summary
When Candice and Brandon get upstairs, Tori is on the phone and tells Candice to stop back on her way out. Candice and Brandon start their investigation by watching the tribute DVD, followed by doing some internet research. One of the first clues they are trying to solve is which sport Enoch Washington loved best, and the DVD provides the answer: baseball. They spend some time figuring out the baseball team he would have rooted for and discover the Luling Oilers, a Negro League team in 1916.
After their first discovery, Candice and Brandon are motivated and begin looking up James Parker, who became a multimillionaire through a series of business ventures in engineering, construction, and other industries. However, “one day, without warning, he sold off all his stock and disappeared” (81). Candice has the idea that James Parker “is the real mystery” (81-82), thinking that they need to understand more about the man who wrote the letter to understand the puzzle itself.
As Candice and Brandon begin looking at some photos of James Parker, Tori interrupts to say that Candice needs to go back home, and Tori gives Candice a bag of clothes. Candice and Brandon do a quick search for “James Parker, Colorado, and Solara plant” (83), which turns out to have been a plant that was moved from Lambert, confirming that James Parker was likely the letter writer. The two discuss Siobhan Washington at greater length as well, learning that not only did Siobhan not coach any sports, but that her middle name was Mildred and she was a librarian whose favorite book was The Westing Game. Brandon suggests that Candice read the book, which is a mystery. Finally, just before Candice leaves, they find that the website where they had found this information was last updated on August 10, 2007, “the same date as the letter” (85).
Chapter 16 Summary
In 1956, Siobhan is in high school and works part-time running an after-school tutoring service that her father created for his athletes. Though she is forbidden to date, many boys take advantage of her work to try to talk to Siobhan, including Chip Douglas, the white son of Coach Douglas, who works at Perkins as the athletic director. Chip works hard to get Siobhan to like him, bantering with her and trying to solve riddles. One afternoon, after giving Chip a particularly hard riddle, Siobhan leaves the library and finds a note in her locker that reads: “Only one person was going to St. Ives. Will you meet me at the big oak tree in Vickers Park at 5:00?” (91). She wonders who has written it, thinking that it could be Chip, and then hurries to the park.
Chapters 12-16 Analysis
One of the underlying threads of The Parker Inheritance is Candice’s growth as she begins making connections both within the mystery of the inheritance and in her own relationships. As she becomes more adept at identifying clues and gathering information to solve the puzzle, she also begins noticing the things around her with more clarity. For example, Candice begins wondering more acutely about Brandon’s sexuality, picking up on small interactions between Brandon and his family members. When Tori reminds him to “leave the door open” (83) to his room with Candice there, she realizes that it’s possible that Tori knows “that Brandon [is] gay” (83). Similarly, Candice begins trying to ascertain what exactly is going on between her parents, noting that her father did not make his pancakes into stars like he used to for Anne. Candice’s increased attention to detail helps her begin deciphering things about the people around her that she might not have previously noticed; this seems directly connected to her efforts to unravel the mystery of the inheritance.
As Candice gets better at figuring out what is going on with other people she knows, she also enhances her capacity to identify the right questions to ask. She often prompts Brandon to do different searches for information than he might have considered. For example, she figures out that they can identify the creator of the website they are looking at by scrolling to the bottom of the page. By developing her skills as an investigator, Candice is more likely to be able to solve the mystery. Young people who are close in age to Candice might find this a helpful example of the ways someone’s mental capacity can expand as they challenge themselves to understand the world more clearly around them and to make connections more quickly.
One interesting aspect of the form of The Parker Inheritance is Johnson’s choice to move between the present day and the past with more frequency as the plot goes forward. The chapters that focus on the past are also set in a white typeface on a darker background, further highlighting that they are separate from the rest of the novel. By interjecting these shorter narratives about the historical characters that Candice and Brandon are learning about, Johnson brings to life the story of the inheritance and makes readers more invested in understanding what happened. In addition, these chapters explore the ways that race and racism functioned in the past, both in the early 20th century and in the 1950s and 1960s. This is an important plot device, especially for younger readers who might understand less of the sociopolitical context referenced by the mystery itself. Like Candice and Brandon, many readers need support to understand what could have created the conditions for the Parker inheritance to exist in the first place. The chapters that focus on the past are also the only time that the reader gets information that Candice and Brandon don’t have; this narrative structure allows the reader to imagine new possibilities about the characters and the mystery before Candice and Brandon make those discoveries.
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