The City We Became

Paulo inspects the site of the pool attack in Jackson Heights. Sensing the aftereffects of Padmini’s power, he then questions her cousin who lives in the same building and who understands that Paulo is somehow like the other avatars. She is suspicious, but after Paulo’s sincere offer of help she tells him where Padmini, Manny, and Brooklyn have gone. He leaves his business card with instructions for the others to text him the location of the Bronx when they find her. He is worried, though. Events following New York’s “birth” are not following the usual process, but he takes solace in the knowledge that, so far, three of the five boroughs have found each other.

That evening, while Padmini and Manny sleep, Brooklyn talks to her daughter, Jojo, who is in the brownstone next door. As she leans out the window gazing at the stars, she notices a ghostly white entity in the small paved courtyard behind Jojo’s brownstone. It moves. Brooklyn orders her daughter, who is also leaning out an open window, to go inside with her grandfather. Dashing outside to confront the spider-like creatures, she sees that her power has not protected the adjacent brownstone, the one with her daughter and father in it. Dozens of the creatures crawl over the façade. Using her old rhyming skills as the former MC Free to focus her mind, she charges toward the building, smashing through the front door. She slashes through a tendrilled web one of the creatures tries to ensnare her with and runs into the bedroom to find another creature slithering through the window. She summons a massive wave of Brooklyn energy and sends it rippling out across the entire borough, destroying all the creatures within her borders. The effort drains her completely, and Manny comes into the room, touching her with a rejuvenating energy.

The next morning, Brooklyn wakes to find a letter from the city notifying her that, as a result of unpaid taxes, her brownstones have been sold to a third party, the Better New York Foundation. She is being evicted.

Bronca studies the art center’s latest exhibition: photographs of a series of graffiti style paintings of eerie holes, orifices with teeth, and winking eyes. Bronca understands that the artist, like her, “hears the city’s song so clearly” (229), and she displays the collection as a summons to him; Bronca intuitively knows that the artist is a “he”. When she returns to the Center’s main gallery, she finds a woman in a white suit examining the photos—specifically, a self-portrait of a young Black man sleeping on a pile of newspapers. The woman asks pointed questions that make Bronca suspicious, but she plays along discreetly. They discuss the unknown boy and the result of growing up poor and abused. Bronca argues that this kind of environment creates “fighters” who will eventually defeat their abusers.

The woman introduces herself as Dr. White of the Better New York Foundation, and she offers the art center a donation of $23 million in exchange for showing some of the Alt Artistes’ work. Just as Bronca is ready to accept the offer, Dr. White also insists that the current graffiti exhibition be taken down. With her offer on the table, she leaves to give Bronca time to consider it. Shortly afterward, Bronca receives a call from Raul, one of the Center’s board members. He tells her that the board has decided that she must accept the money or resign. Bronca watches Alt Artistes’ latest video accusing the Bronx Arts Center of discriminating against White artists. Jess, another staff member, has received death threats. Bronca’s address has been published online. In response, Jess, Yijing, and Veneza launch a social media counteroffensive, garnering community support and highlighting the Center’s record of community service. After a full day of posting, blogging, and tweeting, the board decides to reject the $23 million donation. Despite the good news, Bronca still fears for her safety. Rather than go home, she spends the night in the Center.

Bronca awakens suddenly during the night, her city sense warning her of danger. Creeping downstairs, she hears sounds in the gallery and notices the artwork in the stairwell has been defaced. She also hears a distraught voice, pleading and crying in pain. She senses it around her rather than in a specific location. As Bronca passes one of the galleries on the first floor, she sees that the photo exhibition has been taken off the wall, piled in the center of the floor, and doused with lighter fluid. While examining the damage caused by the Alt Artistes, she is startled by a voice—the same voice she heard in the bathroom stall and the same voice she just heard crying out in the stairwell. Then, Bronca notices something vaguely spider-like moving on the wall; it opens up to reveal another wall beyond, but it is distant and definitely not within the confines of the art center. Something white and grainy slips through the opening and materializes into a human form—a Woman in White, although not the woman from the Better New York Foundation. That woman’s real name is Dr. Akhelios, scion of wealthy Greek family; this, Bronca determines, is the real Dr. White, and, with a subtle gesture, she covers the gallery walls in a surreal, living mural featuring faceless figures moving through an urban landscape. Dr. White offers to help Bronca and “all your favorite individuals” (255) if she will help Dr. White locate “him,” the avatar of New York City. In that moment, Bronca realizes that he is sleeping in the subway as means of rejuvenation. Before the five boroughs were awakened, he battled the Enemy alone and was nearly destroyed. Now he hides, waiting for the others to find and heal him.

Bronca refuses to help, and Dr. White conjures an otherworldly beast that enters the arts center, ready to attack. Bronca, however, summons the power of the Bronx, knocking the Artistes unconscious and decimating every bit of the infestation, except for Dr. White who claims to be a kindred spirit, “ally-less and undervalued” (260), playing to Bronca’s sense of disenfranchisement. Vowing to meet again, Dr. White vanishes. Veneza, who witnessed some of this battle, makes copies of the security video footage while Bronca calls the police. Hours later, the police show up and arrest the Artistes while the community comes together to help repair the damage to the Center. While Bronca rests in her office, Manny, Brooklyn, and Queens show up.

Aislyn sits on her roof gazing at the Manhattan skyline when her mother Kendra joins her. She asks Aislyn if she made it into the city the day before. Aislyn falters, and her mother replies, “Really hoped you would make it” (268). Kendra then confesses that she wanted to be a concert pianist in her youth, and she had a full-ride scholarship to Julliard. Stunned, Aislyn asks why she didn’t pursue it, and Kendra responds that she had become pregnant. Feeling trapped between motherhood and a career, she aborted the pregnancy but told Aislyn’s father she had a miscarriage. Torn by grief over the loss of what her husband desperately hoped would be a son, Kendra decided to sacrifice her career for marriage and family. Not wanting her daughter to repeat her mistakes, she urges Aislyn to heed the call of the city and follow her dreams.

Later, Aislyn goes downstairs to find her father, Matthew, sitting at the table with a stranger: a thin, thirty-something man with tattooed arms and a hipster mustache, and not the kind of person he would normally associate with. He introduces the man as Conall McGuiness, and Matthew’s behavior suggests he sees Conall as a potential suitor for Aislyn. He announces that Conall will be staying with them for a few days. As she turns to leave, Aislyn notices a white tendril sticking out from Conall’s neck.

Later that night, unable to sleep, Aislyn wanders out to the backyard pool and is startled to find Conall there surrounded by empty beer and liquor bottles. He is bare-chested, sporting more tattoos including a swastika. Obviously drunk, he asks Aislyn if she’s ever had sex with a Black man; he wants to know who’s “broken you in” (277). Appalled by his inappropriate behavior, Aislyn responds that she’s not his type and gets up to leave. Conall grabs her hand and tells her that she will never leave Staten Island unless she marries someone, adding, “But you want to leave, don’t you? You dream about having a real life. You want to get away from this shitty island. Be somebody. Right?” (278). Aislyn freezes, partially from the truth of his words, but she finally realizes she must make a choice between her domineering father and her own life. She wrenches her hand away, unleashing the power of her city and sending Conall flying across the yard and crashing into the fence.

Aislyn walks down the street, imbued with her new perception of the world. For the first time, she sees Staten Island for what it is: an enclave of fearful people who deny the atrocities right in front of them and imagine them only elsewhere in the cities. A car pulls up alongside her. The driver, Paulo, addresses her by her city name—Staten Island—and beckons her to get in the car. As she moves toward the car, white tendrils sprout from the ground and lash at the vehicle. Backing away from them, Aislyn stumbles into the arms of the Woman in White but pulls away, knowing instinctively that Conall acted through her and that she cannot be trusted. Paulo approaches, blowing cigarette smoke at the tendrils and killing them.

Paulo and the Woman in White face off. She accuses him of some prior transgression, an “assault” which triggers fear and anger in Aislyn and evokes all of her ignorance and bigotry about non-White men. Still filled with rage over her encounter with Conall, Aislyn summons her power once again and hurls it at Paulo, flinging him into the darkness; at that moment, his city Sao Paulo, suffers a massive earthquake. He retaliates, inflicting some damage on Aislyn and Staten Island in the process.

She returns to her house. Her father confers with Conall who claims he was attacked by a Black man. Back in her room, Aislyn decides to ignore the call of the other boroughs. She can protect Staten Island on her own. As she falls asleep, engineers in a nearby train yard discover four deep, parallel trenches scored into the earth “[a]s if someone rent the earth itself with great, girder-sized claws” (290).