Deadly, Unna?: Chapter 34 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Blacky wakes up early and sneaks out of his room through the window. He begins walking down the road toward the Point. Beside him, the sea is calm. Blacky feels happy, despite the fact that he’s on his way to a funeral and his father will be angry with him when he gets home.

Blacky gets halfway to the Point and is worried he will arrive early and be told to leave. He lies down on some seaweed and thinks about Dumby and how he always used to say, “Deadly, unna?” He wonders if Dumby would go to heaven. He knows Dumby broke into the pub and he might have had a gun, but he knows Dumby would never hurt anyone. He wonders if Big Mac would go to heaven after killing Dumby.

Blacky changes into his nice clothes. He thinks his tie looks silly, but he has to wear a tie to a funeral. He walks to the spot where he and Dazza turned around when they first tried to go to the Point. There, a sign reads: “The Point Aboriginal Reserve – No Entry Without Prior Permission.” There are bullet holes in the sign.

The Point comes into view, and Blacky can see that the land is dry and barren, far away from the sea. He passes a lot of garbage on the side of road. He sees an abandoned car and remembers how in the pub, the regulars say that indigenous people don’t take care of their cars, just driving them till they break down and then expecting the government to buy them new ones. Blacky wonders if the car he sees is the one involved in the robbery.

All the houses in the Point have doors and windows, which surprises Blacky, because pub regulars always say indigenous people live in houses without doors and windows. Blacky passes a couple of boys playing football. When he tries to greet them, they run away. He runs into more kids, who all keep their distance from him.

Blacky passes the elementary school and a brick building that looks exactly like the Port’s town hall. He realizes that, although his school taught him all about Port history, he knows nothing about the Point’s history. Blacky keeps walking toward where one of the local children points, far out of town. He worries the funeral is too far away and he’s going to miss it.

A car passes Blacky and stops. Clarence gets out of the car and asks Blacky what he’s doing. He tells her he’s going to the funeral. She invites him into the packed car. No one in the car seems happy to see him there. Blacky realizes that the driver, Lovely, is a former football player for the Port, who disappeared from the game years ago due to getting into some sort of trouble. Lovely angrily questions Blacky’s opinions, until Clarence tells him to leave Blacky alone to pay his respects.

The car arrives at the cemetery. Blacky notices that he is the only white person at the funeral and feels self-conscious. Then Blacky sees the open coffin. He doesn’t want to look at Dumby’s body but can’t help himself. Dumby is wearing a suit and black shoes, as opposed to his iconic basketball shoes. His hair is combed the wrong way, and this makes Blacky angry. Then suddenly, all the background noise around Blacky seems to disappear and he feels a sense of peace. His feelings of anger and self-consciousness fade away.

While the community buries the coffin, Blacky sits on the beach next to the remains of a wrecked boat. In the distance, he sees the Port’s jetty. He imagines his friends Pickles and Dazza sitting back in town and telling themselves the common myths of spears and boomerangs in the Point. He thinks about how Dazza warned him not to come to the funeral because he would get hurt, but Blacky thinks he hasn’t been hurt that much.

Blacky tries and fails to skip stones on the water. Clarence comes up behind him. She’s crying, but she successfully skips a stone. She thanks Blacky for coming to the funeral. She tells Blacky that Lovely was there at the robbery with Dumby and that Dumby participated in the robbery because he idolized Lovely. She said Lovely left Dumby behind in the pub to die. She continues to cry and Blacky doesn’t know what he can say to comfort her.

Blacky intends to walk home, but Clarence insists he let her family drive him. He meets Clarence and Dumby’s mom, who agrees to give him a ride. He also sees Tommy, who looks nothing like his lively former self. Clarence’s mom says that before they find someone to drive Blacky home, he should stop at their house for refreshments.

Clarence’s house is crowded with funeral guests. Blacky sees Lovely talking to Uncle Sid and realizes that Lovely is actually Dumby’s first cousin. Blacky sits down on the living room sofa and realizes that the sofa’s springs are busted, just like his own family’s sofa. Clarence invites Blacky into the kitchen, where he sits down with her mother for tea.

Uncle Sid offers Blacky a ride back to the Port. Blacky says to Clarence that he’ll see her later and she says yes, maybe they’ll see each other on the jetty. Blacky wonders if Clarence saw him that day he was with Cathy and he hid his face. Uncle Sid drives Blacky back home, stopping at the sand hills so Blacky can retrieve the bag he left behind. When they arrive at Blacky’s house, Uncle Sid tells him the family appreciates him coming to the funeral, even if they have difficulty showing it.

As Blacky enters his house, his worried mother asks where he’s been all day. Though he’s nervous, he tells her the truth. His mother almost smiles at him, before telling him to eat and go to bed.