Rule of the Bone

While figuring out his next move, Bone hangs out in a touristy part of Montego Bay known as Doctor’s Cove. The thing that sticks with him is that his whiteness is what saved him, even more so than being Doc’s kid. He decides to hitch out to Accompong and tell I-Man’s family, but everyone in the village either ignores him or is actively hostile. While he’s there, he gathers up his machete, which he feels he’s earned, and sits down to sharpen it. When it’s razor sharp, he impulsively cuts off the dreadlocks I-Man helped him make.

Back in Doctor’s Cove, Bone continues to be troubled by his whiteness and his attempts to fit in with the people of Accompong; he realizes that he couldn’t ever really escape being white. When he finds a phone card that he can use to call anywhere in the world, he decides to dig out Russ’s aunt’s phone number. He walks to a local hospital and calls Russ on a payphone.

Russ is glad to hear from Bone. He’s been working construction since he left Bone behind at the Ridgeways’ home. He also tells Bone that his mom and stepfather have split up, and his grandmother has died. Bone tells Russ that he needs help getting home, and Russ is shocked; he can’t believe Bone would want to come home to Plattsburgh when he’s living in Jamaica. Russ says it would be much better if the two of them were together in Jamaica, and Bone realizes Russ isn’t going to understand what he’s been through. He begrudgingly lets Russ concoct a plan to sell his Camaro and meet Bone in Montego Bay, though he doesn’t believe Russ will go through with it.

As Russ is putting the phone number back in his wallet, he finds another slip of paper he’d forgotten about. It’s the number for Rose’s mother. He doesn’t recognize it, and he has a fantasy about dialing it and hearing I-Man’s voice. He goes ahead and calls, but when I-Man doesn’t answer, he figures out who he’s talking to. Rose’s mother tells him that Rose died of pneumonia not long after arriving home, and then she tries to get Bone to send her more money. He gets angry with her, and she hangs up on him. After staring at the phone in disbelief, he takes Rose’s phone number and eats it. He decides the only thing left for him to do is head to Starport.

Bone isn’t sure precisely what it is, but he has unfinished business with his father, which is why he returns to Starport. He knows it has something to do with ratting out I-Man, which Bone sees as a sin weighing on him. When he arrives, no one is home, and he takes the time to finally listen to the classical CDs he’s been carrying around since he was in Keene. While listening to them, he has time to reflect, and he becomes sure of who he’s become. He thinks I-Man is sending him a message: that he can reach the kind of enlightenment the Rastafarian religion promises as long as he doesn’t forget he’s still a white kid, that trying to escape that whiteness is part of the problem.

When he hears a car coming, Bone retreats to his old room. He waits until he’s sure that it’s Evening Star and his father before coming downstairs bearing the Jah-stick. When he gets downstairs, they’re excited to see him, but he greets them coldly, and Doc is clearly sick from drugs. Bone and Evening Star head into the kitchen while Doc takes a nap, and she tells him what she heard about I-Man from her point of view: that he’d ripped someone off and been killed for it. Bone knows that’s not true, and he suspects that his father was involved in I-Man’s killing, especially when she tells him that Doc has been dealing some himself. More than that, he knows that he needs to get back on I-Man’s side in his mind, and he thinks he can do this by having sex with Evening Star. He propositions her, saying that it’d be his first time, and she agrees.

Evening Star leads him into the cupboard where he found her with I-Man and the two have sex. Afterward, he asks Evening Star if Doc has other family. She reluctantly tells him yes, that he has at least one son in Kingston named Paul and likely others. Bone tells her he’s leaving, but she asks him to stay, saying that they can continue having sex under Doc’s nose. When she leaves, Bone goes and looks at his sleeping father. He realizes that his father is evil. Bone writes his father a note—“The Bone Rules, Never Forget-tee”—and puts it in the stuffed bird he’s been carrying around (373). Then he takes up the Jah-stick and goes outside to find Jason.

Bone doesn’t know what he’s going to do, but he finds Jason roasting a goat. Jason sees that Bone has a machete and takes up his own; Bone gives a speech with a heavy Rasta accent, saying he places a curse on Jason, then lays down his machete. Jason takes up both machetes and threatens Bone; as though by its own accord, the Jah-stick Bone has in his hand lashes out and jabs Jason in the face. The hidden needles in the stick do their job, sending Jason backwards into the fire. Jason leaps up from the fire, and Bone pushes Jason into the pool and runs away.

Bone heads to the marina, thinking that if he can find a man he knows named Captain Ave he might escape Montego Bay. Captain Ave was a regular customer of I-Man’s and runs an old fishing boat that he’d converted into a tourist cruiser. Bone knows that Ave’s customers are usually angry with him, because his boat is not as advertised, and he knows Ave is always looking for crew to help placate his customers. He finds Captain Ave, who is going to be headed out with an ex-singer and his family. They are sober and vegetarian, and Bone agrees to cook them the traditional vegetarian dishes of Ital. Ave sends Bone to stock up for the trip while he goes to get the family from the airport.

Bone sees something in the marketplace that he finds deeply sad: Russ is there, looking lost. He’s sold his Camaro and made it to Jamaica after all. Bone watches him, realizing that they will never be friends again, until Russ is picked up by Evening Star and taken away, probably to Starport to take up partying with her. Seeing this, and thinking that he could’ve still been a person like Russ, makes Bone realize how rich he is for having known Rose and I-Man.

As the boat pulls out of the marina, Bone focuses on the singer’s kids instead of on the island fading into the distance. He thinks about them growing up, how they’ll be just like their parents, and realizes he’s not a kid anymore. That night, he looks up at the stars, realizing that he can see constellations up there, and he gives them names: Adirondack Iron, Sister Rose, Lion-I. The book closes with him thinking that whenever he’s not sure what to do, he’ll take comfort in hearing I-Man say, “Up to you, Bone” (390).