There Will Be No Miracles Here

Abandoning her chance at a college degree, Gerald’s sister sets up a home and moves him into it. Despite his resistance, Gerald thinks of his favorite book from first grade: The Boxcar Children, which taught him that “sometimes it doesn’t matter what you have. All that matters is what you’re trying to do—there’s always some way to do it” (103). From that book, he took the possibility that “things might just be okay” (103).

That hopeful possibility characterizes most of Casey and Tashia Gerald’s time living together, and they have fun making things okay. Their housing is paid for through public assistance, and they find a way to collect the checks addressed to their mother, apparently due to her disability and status as a parent. She, of course, is nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, Gerald reflects with some apparent joy on the 16th birthday party that his sister throws him at his Granny’s house.

It is then, at age 16, that Gerald meets a boy.

The boy Gerald meets is referred to as Red. They meet online, and Red pushes for phone contact, so Gerald shares his number. Several months later, Red says that he is coming to visit Gerald from his home in Shreveport, Louisiana. Gerald borrows his sister’s car, and they rent a hotel room while the visit occurs.

Chapter 7 explores the relationship that develops between them during Gerald’s high school years, except a brief period when he tries to give up “sin.” Reflecting back with an adult perspective, Gerald obliquely suggests that he mistreated Red by referencing E. M. Forester’s short story “The Life to Come,” which describes a homosexual love between a Native American chief and a missionary. Having eventually accepted his lover’s religion, the chief seeks assurance of an afterlife from him. Upon receiving it, he kills his lover (and then himself) so they may meet in the next life. Gerald says Red should have done that to him.

This chapter is primarily about football and its importance to the families in South Oak Cliff and similar neighborhoods. Gerald emphasizes the importance of football in Texas high schools, noting that players have a place of privilege.

While not a star like his father, Gerald describes himself as a moderately good player at this point. He is a major aspect of a play that repeatedly wins games for his team, until they face an opponent who has prepared for it and targets Gerald with extra brutality. Gerald withstands it and does not quit, and thus earns respect.

Receiving offers from big football colleges is incredibly important to many families of high school players, as this process leads students to commit to a college. Gerald does not attract scouts from the big football schools. Instead, he is scouted by Yale University.

Gerald knows nothing of Yale and initially rejects the idea of going to Connecticut. Soon, he focuses on making it a reality because he sees how impressive the idea is to his community. He strives to be valedictorian and succeeds. He becomes class president, too, and is even “Mayor for a Day” in Dallas. As it happens, Mayor Laura Miller was previously a reporter who wrote a story on Rod Gerald after his injuries, shortly before Casey was born.

All these forces, as well as the teachers and coaches at South Oak Cliff (which, Gerald suggests, may have sent more students to the NFL than any other high school), came together to urge Gerald on to Yale. Thus, because he was not a great player, Gerald “avoided having [his] life ruined by the high-stakes gamble of big time college football” (138).