There Are No Children Here: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

At his young age, Lafeyette has already had to reckon with death and injustice on a deeply personal level. One of his friends, Bird Leg, known for loving and communicating with dogs, becomes involved in gang activity, finding love and protection in Jimmie Lee’s organization even though he does not actually deal drugs. Before joining a gang himself, Bird Leg was personally harmed by gangs, since, as someone who lives in Disciples territory but has a relative who belongs to the Vice Lords, he was often beaten simply because of his relative’s allegiance. Bird Leg’s involvement with gangs causes Lafeyette to distance himself from his friend but, at the same time, to miss his dog-loving companion.

In the summer of 1987, Bird Leg is becoming increasingly reckless. He has since dropped out of school, and his loyalty to the Vice Lords leads him to shoot at Disciples randomly—a common behavior among young gang members. Even though his family has moved to another neighborhood to avoid gang violence, Bird Leg frequently returns to Horner to visit friends. In August, the gangs reach a temporary truce because of increased police presence in the neighborhood, which keeps them from trafficking drugs in impunity. Despite this, Bird Leg still feels strongly about attacking rival gang members.

One day in August, Bird Leg is shot by a rival gang member with a buckshot and jokes to his family that he would want to be buried in his white jogging suit. The next evening, after he begins fighting with some young Disciples at Horner, one of the Disciples suddenly shoots him in the chest, taking Bird Leg by surprise. News of Bird Leg’s near-immediate death soon reaches Lafeyette, but unlike James and the rest of the growing crowd, Lafeyette refuses go see Bird Leg, having already witnessed too much violence.

Jimmie Lee soon arrives on the crime scene and immediately proceeds to lead a group of Vice Lords to seek revenge on the Disciples for Bird Leg’s death. However, policeman Charlie Toussas, who knows Lee well, interferes to keep him from doing so. Lee follows Toussas’s advice and returns with his group to the Vice Lords’ territory, thus avoiding yet another brutal shoot-out.

A few days later, afraid that groups of Disciples would storm the young boy’s funeral, Bird Leg’s family organizes the ceremony at a storefront church outside the neighborhood. At the church, Lafeyette, Pharoah, and James all walk up to Bird Leg’s casket. The young boy’s swollen face makes him look much older, but he is wearing the jogging suit he had jokingly requested. The children are all overwhelmed by the emotional weight of this death. James begins to cry when he sees their dead friend’s body. Pharoah later remains troubled by the cries of Bird Leg’s sister, who is wailing that her brother is not dead, and Lafeyette remains impassive during the ceremony. The service takes place in an uncomfortably humid atmosphere. Even Jimmie Lee attends, serving as a pallbearer.

Carla Palmore, one of Bird Leg’s friends, gives a speech about remembering that, more importantly than his membership to a gang, Bird Leg was a young boy whose future was brutally taken away—something that could happen to anyone else in the crowd. At the end of the speech, Jimmie Lee thanks the young girl for her thoughtful words. Pharoah and James begin to cry when people begin to sing an emotional pop song, but Lafeyette remains stoic. Later, he explains that he cried on the inside, as he did not feel that he had enough energy to let the tears out.

After the service, Pharoah asks Lafeyette about heaven, but his older brother tells him to shut up. They hear a mother tell her son that he could have been killed just like Bird Leg, and they see gang members make the Vice Lords’ sign at Bird Leg’s body. Once they are outside the church, James tells Lafeyette that he knows they are going to die somehow, but that he would rather die “plain out” instead of “by killing,” which Lafeyette agrees with.