It is how Adam is coping with feeling like he abandoned his brother when he needed him most. This was not the case to an extent. Adam did what he was able to within school guidelines and sometimes with the hope of not getting caught. But his brother needed a consistent support that Adam was not able to provide at the time, and the fear of gays and HIV fueled a lot of his apprehension.

Sometimes, we never expect our limits to cause the death of people we love.

By naming his son after his brother, Adam can honor Joey in death the way he unfortunately was not honored in life.

There are two reasons.

Safety from stalkers is why many reporters use a different public name than their actual government name. In some cases, using a consultant to help determine a name can give you an identity more comfortable to potential viewing audiences. Yes, it can be viewed as whitewashing identity, but that would not be a valid criticism for Miss Denae Marlon.

It was simply a move to put her best foot forward while protecting her identity. With her father being a famous activist in the canon, and her mother owning a high-end restaurant, they are also additionally protected by her pseudonym.

People who don’t know her, don’t know her.

Children do not perceive adult relationships the way adults perceive them.

The only thing Joey knows is that these three adult men are somehow connected and he is the center of it all. Adam is his dad, Eigan is someone other than his father that he likes, Chase and Adam spend time together, and Chase and Eigan communicate. From his perspective, there is no secret to be kept.

In addition to that, because he already views being with men as normal even at his young age, he is not going to question seeing adult men in his life being around each other. When those men eventually appear with women, it still might not process as anything more than two people being around each other.

He is stereotypically too young to notice the difference between men and women, let alone his future development.

Yes, and no. He is largely based on the main character from Boomerang in 1992, starring Eddie Murphy.

Marcus Washington is much more desired by and respectful of women than the character who inspired him. Women throw themselves at Marcus, and he doesn’t mind accepting.

Denae is not modeled on any specific character, but is a composition of the 90s Black woman.

For narrative purposes, and using high school competition rules from different states, Sable’s baseball team could participate in a preseason single- or multi-school jamboree that did not count toward its regular-season record or game limit.

Though it was a proposed rule in Illinois at the time this book was conceived, it in fact is not a rule in Illinois. A few other states do allow this type of preseason competition.

Joey explains part of this in Grown Folks’ Business at the funeral. p. 108.

As a child, crimson and rainbows are two ways Joey recognizes Eigan. Crimson is Joey’s favorite color because Eigan wears it often.

When Eigan moves away, for reasons Joey is too young to understand, Joey colors his grandmother’s white carpet with crimson to tell his dad, “I miss Eigan.”

When Eigan finds out, he pays to have the carpet cleaned and buys Joey his first paint set.

Joey becomes an artist because art is how he keeps Eigan close to him.