The Nickel Boys

Flashing forward to 1968, Elwood is now living in New York City. Manhattan is in the throes of an oppressive summer coupled with a garbage strike that fills the streets with an overpowering stench and hordes of rats. Elwood remembers first coming to Manhattan and renting a room in a flophouse where he began cleaning simply because no one else would.

He works as a mover, although lifting heavy furniture has left him with a bad back. He shares an apartment with his girlfriend Denise, an ESL teacher at a school for continuing education where Elwood completes his GED. While proud of his accomplishment, this is an older and more jaded Elwood, one whose politics favor any position that “stuck it to the man, rule one” (141).

With money saved from his moving job, Elwood buys a van and starts his own moving company, Ace Moving. He thinks that he picked the name so it would come early in the alphabetical phone book listings, but realizes that he must have subconsciously named after the Nickel term for freedom.

There are four ways out of Nickel: early release due to good behavior or age (Nickel is required to release boys when they turn 18); legal intervention; death (administrative records are inconsistent on numbers and causes); and finally, escape (although the consequences of being caught are severe). Those who plausibly died of natural causes are buried on Boot Hill, and others are buried in unmarked graves around the property.

One legendary escapee was Clayton Smith, a boy with neither the physical skills nor the constitution to endure Nickel’s torments. Running after being sexually abused by a house father, Smith first made his way along country roads and through dark woods under cover of darkness, finally stealing clothes and deciding to hitchhike. A seemingly kind White man in a Packard picked him up, and Smith imagined himself a safe distance away, until the Packard drove him right back to Nickel. Smith paid for his escape with his life.

As his time passes at Nickel, Elwood realizes that compliance and a low profile, while keeping him out of the White House, have drained his spirit and his dignity. Harriet can see this during her visits, and she finds it hard to return to Nickel only to watch Elwood falling further into despair. One Sunday while Harriet is visiting, she informs her grandson that Mr. Anderson, the lawyer who had been working on Elwood’s legal appeal, has absconded with Harriet’s $200 retainer. Elwood assures Harriet he doesn’t blame her, but he fixes his mind on a fifth way out: “Get rid of Nickel” (158).

Back in New York, 1988, Elwood watches the New York City Marathon, rooting for the stragglers, the runners who barely make it across the finish line but still persevere.

After the race, he runs into a former Nickel Boy, Chickie Pete. Following his release from Nickel, Chickie served in the military. After discharge, Chickie worked a variety of jobs and drank too much. After a bar fight, he was sentenced to either jail or rehab. Elwood and Chickie go for a beer, though Elwood worries about drinking with someone fresh out of rehab.

Chickie is now living with his sister in New York and assessing his options. Elwood, on the other hand, is now the owner of a successful moving company. Elwood and Chickie reminisce about old acquaintances, although they avoid any specific mention of Nickel itself. When Chickie asks how Elwood left Nickel, Elwood is surprised. He had successfully escaped, and had hoped that the story of his escape would have become legendary to the incarcerated boys. Instead, no one remembers him, so he lies and tells Chickie that he aged out of Nickel. When Chickie asks about Turner, Elwood changes the subject.

As they say goodbye, Chickie asks for a job. Elwood promises to consider it, but he tears up Chickie’s phone number on the ride home.