Clean Getaway

Scoob’s troubles at school began six months earlier when his friend-turned-rival Bryce Benedict began bullying Shenice’s little brother Drake, who is epileptic. As the teasing progresses, Scoob gets an overwhelming urge to smack Bryce. Shenice also later tells Scoob that Bryce’s antics are taking a toll on Drake, who is having more seizures. When Bryce hits Drake one day while he’s having a seizure—in which he sits still and blinks without really being aware of what’s happening around him—Scoob “snap[s]” and begins punching Bryce.

To Scoob, “that was the beginning of the end” of his father’s faith in him (16).

When he tried to explain why he did what he did, his dad—Dr. James Robert Lamar Jr.—explains that the police wouldn’t care if he was “defending a friend” because they’ll stereotype Scoob because he’s Black, especially because Bryce is white (16).

As he recounts this at a diner called DamnYankees, G’ma wonders if this was extreme, but Scoob explains that his dad acts like he’s a delinquent, especially because of the “other incident” (17). Scoob is grateful that his G’ma doesn’t ask any additional questions. Thinking about his dad’s treatment of him makes Scoob sad. He can tell his grandma knows what he’s feeling, but he just wants to drive away.

Scoob notices an older white man looking at him and G’ma. He’s used to seeing people look at him with her since she’s white and he’s black, but this man’s stare is more “disdainful” (19). In fact, this man isn’t the only one who’s making that face. Scoob sees that a lot of people have the same stare. It makes him mad.

When they leave, G’ma comments that “These small towns are really something, aren’t they?” (20). As they drive away, Scoob realizes that she didn’t pay the bill.

They park for the night at Cheaha State Park in Alabama. The sun is beginning to set, but G’ma wants to go for a hike. She pulls out a wooden box, and Scoob realizes that it’s her treasure box. She tells him to put it in his backpack.

Together, they watch the sunset from Bunker Tower, the highest point in Alabama. It was built in 1934, and G’ma explains that she’s wanted to see it for 51 years. She tells him to take out the box and to open it, which he’s never been allowed to do before.

Inside, Scoob sees guidebooks, some matchbooks, postcards, and the Travelers’ Green Book. It’s from 1963. G’ma takes it out and explains that it’s “[s]omethin’ that helped keep a lotta folks like your G’pop—and me, for that matter—alive back in the day” (28). She adds that because it wasn’t always safe for Black people to travel, the Green Book helped them to know what hotels and restaurants were friendly. She hands it to Scoob.

Next, she has him take out the Alabama map, and he finds their location in Cheaha State Park. G’ma starts to sob.

As they descend the mountain, Scoob thinks about how “his grandfather had needed a book that listed ‘safe’ places to do something as simple as get gas back in the day,” all because of the color of his skin (32).

When they get back to the RV, G’ma hands him a photo of G’pop and tells him to keep it with the Green Book. Staring at it and thinking about the day, Scoob can’t sleep.

In the photo, G’pop is leaning against an older RV. Scoob notices that his skin is darker than both Scoob’s and his father’s. He looks like James but younger, and it’s the first time Scoob has seen a picture of G’pop. G’ma doesn’t talk much about him, except for today. Scoob’s dad said he’d been a “nonentity” since before he was born, but after hearing G’ma today, he realizes how much G’pop meant to her (35).

On their hike down, G’ma explained that, in 1968, she and G’pop bought an RV to drive from Georgia to Mexico. They’d had to skip a lot of the sites that G’ma wanted to see since G’pop was Black. Cheaha Mountain was the first stop.

Turning to the Green Book, he flips to the Alabama section and looks for the nearest town to where they are now. The town is not there, “[w]hich means there was nowhere safe for black people to stay around here when G’ma and G’pop took their trip” (37). Scoob’s journey with G’ma now is their attempt at “redemption,” especially since they didn’t make it to Mexico (37).

Scoob tries to reconcile the G’pop of the photo with the image of his grandfather as a jewel thief who went to prison before his dad was born. He died there. He wonders if G’pop wasn’t as bad as his father makes him out to be.

Scoob also thinks about his mother, who has tried to contact him before. He accidentally heard a voicemail from her when he was 10, but his father never said anything about it until Scoob tried to bring it up. Before he could get a full sentence out, his dad stopped him, saying, “She left, William. She’s gone. Absent. Same way my father was. End of story” (40). Now, like with G’pop, he wonders if there’s more to the story than his father is telling him.

When he wakes to find G’ma gone, Scoob begins to worry that someone from the diner came after them, thinking about To Kill a Mockingbird and how people would come after African Americans. However, he sees G’ma out the window carrying a license plate, which is green. All the license plates in Georgia, where they’re from, are white, so he’s confused as he watches her attach it to the bumper of their RV.

As she makes breakfast, G’ma points out that she listened to a voicemail from his dad and that he’s been trying to reach them. She also explains that it’s unusual that she hasn’t seen Scoob using his. He admits that he left it at home but doesn’t say that he stashed it beneath his mattress.

He knows that his dad will be angry and wonders if G’ma called him back. She says that she’ll send him a text, but then adds it seems that both are “trying to make a run for it” (48).