The Parker Inheritance

Candice watches her father leave the next morning and tries hard not to cry. As she sits on the front steps, she sees Brandon come up, dressed in his church clothes, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Though Candice is still having bad feelings, she listens as Brandon suggests that she come to church with his family; the piece of paper he is holding is a photograph of the Washingtons in front of the building his church used to be in. Brandon thinks they can find someone who might know something about the Washingtons in his congregation. Candice goes inside for breakfast and gets permission from her mom to go to church. While she waits to go to the service, she looks through the Perkins yearbook one more time, looking for James Parker, before realizing that he wouldn’t ever be in it: “he was white, and Perkins was an all-black school” (98).

At church with Brandon, Candice is surprised to discover that it’s the same church that Milo attends. Candice enjoys the service, especially when the pastor speaks about the idea that it’s important to stay “on the right path, even when you can’t see the Promised Land” (99). After the service, Brandon wants to talk to Deacon Draper, but the two are interrupted by Milo’s mother, who rudely asks several intrusive questions about Candice’s family. Candice pretends to be polite, and then asks several questions back to Ms. Stanford about Milo’s sports and activities.

Finally, Candice and Brandon break away from Ms. Stanford and speak with Deacon Draper, who does in fact know Enoch Washington, or Coach Dub. Deacon Draper gives them some information about the Washingtons, as well as sharing that the church received a large anonymous donation in 2007. Candice also asks after her grandmother, and Deacon Draper kindly tells her that he will find some old photos, since “it’s the least [he could] do for Abigail Caldwell’s granddaughter” (106). 

On Monday, Candice heads over to Brandon’s house where he is practicing basketball in the backyard. Though he’s a skilled shooter, Candice is not, so they head inside to work. Before they get started, Brandon gives her another plastic bag of clothes from Tori, while Candice hands over a piece of paper with her hand-made “Milo’s weekly calendar” (108) that she had made after talking to his mother at church. Brandon is grateful, but also explains that he wasn’t always avoiding Milo, he likes hanging out with Candice. She asks if he’s only doing these nice things because he thinks her family is “poor” (109) but he explains he really just wants to be nice and supportive, promising to talk to his sister about not going overboard with the clothing donations.

Candice and Brandon return to their research, looking up information based on the documents they got from Deacon Draper. Mostly they generate more questions than answers, resolving to return to the Memorial Room at Perkins to look through more files. Candice ends the research session looking at a photo of Coach Douglas and Coach Dub in the yearbook: “a black man and a white man, side by side… wonder[ing] if they were friends” (112).

Chapter 20 returns to Enoch Washington in 1957, shortly before the fated tennis match between the all-white and all-Black high school teams. Coach Dub decides to leave a newspaper article on the car of Coach Thomas Turner, the coach at the all-white Wallace High School. On the front of the paper is an article about Althea Gibson, a Black female tennis player who had just won a match at Wimbledon. Coach Dub wants to make it clear that “tennis ain’t a white-boys-only sport anymore” (115).

After the newspaper is discovered, a group of white men come to threaten Coach Dub. Adam Douglas is also there, helping to diffuse the situation. After exchanging some words, including with Marion Allen, Coach Dub introduces the idea of “a friendly little tournament” (119) between the two teams. After the other men leave, Coach Douglas expresses his concern that they could win the match.