Long Way Down

On the next floor, the man Will has waited to meet all his life gets on. It is his father, Mikey Holloman. Mikey hugs Will, makes him feel safe and loved. In front of his father, Will can finally admit his real pain: “I don’t know, / I don’t know, / I don’t know / what to do” (208). Will describes the experience of being fatherless; unlike Shawn, he has no memories of his father, who died when he was three. Shawn always said Mikey was killed for killing the man who killed Mark, at a payphone on the street. Buck saw the whole thing, and because of that took it upon himself to keep an eye on Shawn. But Mikey and Mark start telling the whole story—the one no one knows but them. Mikey describes the pain he felt after Mark’s death and his inability to move on. He says, “I couldn’t just come home / and be a daddy and a husband / when I couldn’t be a brother / no more” (212). He describes shooting the drug dealer he thought killed Mark, as well as the anger that consumed him. He was uncontrollable.