I blink back into reality, still staring down at the scoop in my bare hand, and I briefly consider telling Scoop. Only a second has gone by in the real world, even though I just watched a twenty-second vision.
I’m back to the present day, turning the scoop over in my fingers. When I open my eyes again, I’m looking down at the scoop in my hand. I think the word stop, and silently, I command the vision to end. I blink, directing all my focus into darkness, the abstract, nothing.
Scoop, the owner of this place, is going to sell the business. In my vision, someone’s leaned it carelessly against the white siding, which is coated in a thin layer of green and black grime, the kind that builds up over months of neglect. Behind the two hands, sitting on the grass, is the sign that hangs over the front door of this place-the one that says SCOOP’S. But the most telling detail, the revelation that might affect my future, lies in the background. A glittering, diamond-encrusted ring indicates this man must have more money in his wallet than I’ll make in my entire life. This new hand is amply lotioned-no ashiness in the crease between the index finger and thumb. I see a familiar light-skinned hand with knobby knuckles and dirt under the nails, passing the scoop I’m holding into a new, unfamiliar hand as dark as mine. I PICK UP THE ice cream scoop, and the vision begins. With Alex now in a race against time, death, and circumstances, he and Isaiah must grapple with their past, their future, and what it means to be a young Black man in America in the present. Alex feels these visions are a curse, distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live an ordinary life.Īnd when Alex touches a photo that gives him a vision of his brother’s imminent death, everything changes. When he touches Talia, he sees them at the precipice of breaking up, and that terrifies him. When he touches his car, he sees it years from now, totaled and underwater. When he touches a scoop, he has a vision of him using it to scoop ice cream. It’s hard to for him to be present when every time he touches an object or person, Alex sees into its future. But as much as Alex tries, he often comes up short. He tries to be the best employee he can be at the local ice cream shop the best boyfriend he can be to his amazing girlfriend, Talia the best protector he can be over his little brother, Isaiah. Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus is trying his best. Dear Martin meets They Both Die at the End in this gripping, evocative novel about a Black teen who has the power to see into the future, whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death, from the acclaimed author of SLAY.
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