SPOILERS IN THIS POST

In Long Division by Kiese Laymon, the main character Citoyen “City” Coldson receives the same true/false test twice. Question 8 reads: “If you haven’t read or written or listened to something at least three times, you have never really read, written, or listened. True/False.” I took this took this for truth and started rereading Long Division the moment I finished it.

Discoveries Rereading Long Division

Rereading, I rediscovered a once-mentioned detail: Baize has a brother who disappeared. From that moment rereading became an investigative process to find out if Baize’s brother (and therefore City’s son) is in the story too.

“Baize?”

“What?”

“What happened to your brother?”

“He disappeared, too.”

— 24. Eyes have It…,p 234

Who is Baize’s Brother? An Investigative Annotation Project

LaVander and Baize, at key moments in the story, are divisible by the same prose. Why did Kiese Laymon give them the same literary DNA? Mirroring scenes, whole sentences in common, and shared character details have to mean something, right? What if this literary DNA is metaphor for real DNA? What if Baize and LaVander are siblings?

Go Through The Text Evidence With Me

Dynamic Sentence Competition vs. Spell-Off

First let’s look at a set of sister scenes: City competes onstage in Book 1 and again in Book 2. In Book 1, he’s competing against LaVander. In Book 2, City competes against Baize.

The competition scenes have a lot of similarities: 

• The year is 2013.
• The contests are both analogous to the Scripps National Spelling Bee (in Long Division, they’re called the 5th Annual Can You Use That Word in A Sentence National Competition and the Spell-Off).
• Competition order: LaVander and Baize are up first and both get their answers wrong. City is up second both times.
• City forfeits in a brave, emotional, embarrassing, and spectacular way in both competitions.

These competition scenes have sister quotes, too!

Two Three-Legged Races

At the end of Book 1 and near the of Book 2, City leads LaVander and Baize, respectively, into the time travel hole. These scenes have a ton of similarities: declarations of love; LaVander and Baize resting their heads on City’s shoulder; and LaVander and Baize following City into the hole with the kind of complete trust and sense of safety a young child might have with a parent.

Plus, the scenes have identical sister quotes.

All Things Considered

LaVander’s catchphrase has a lot of meaning applied to this investigative process. If you consider all the things below, they begin to add up as evidence that City is LaVander’s father—that LaVander is Baize’s missing brother.

ONE. City doesn’t like LaVander’s or Baize’s haircuts.

City makes it known several times that he does not like LaVander’s fade or Baize’s short haircut. This coincidence is a thread connecting all these characters. By itself, it’s not proof of relationship, but with all the other evidence could it mean more?

“[…] his fade doesn’t really fade right. […] I call him “Lavender” or “Fade Don’t Fade.”

— 1. One Sentence, p 4

Plus, look at you. You got that ugly haircut for a girl […]”

— 26. SNCC’S Notes on Teaching in Mississippi…, p 263

TWO. City feels instinctual (nonromantic) love for both Baize and LaVander and declares it in the hole.

Check out these chapters and pages again:

• 5. Click That. p 45
• 20. They went Swimming. p 153
• 27. Kindly Pause… p 269

THREE: City hints at a missing “half of what the story” is about. Is he alluding to his missing son, Baize’s missing brother?

• Reread Chapter 21. Special Game… p 167

FOUR: In 2013, City brings LaVander into the time travel hole. Someone else is there, too, breathing audibly. Baize?

In a scene that made me bawl, City left Baize in the time travel hole. Her breathing is labored and loud. What if she is still in there? What if the breathing LaVander and City hear is coming from her?

• Reread Chapter 20. They went Swimming. p 153

FIVE: Who (plural) reappears in the hole at the end?

At the end of book, City goes into the time travel hole to write and reappear people who have disappeared. He addresses and touches at least two people in the hole. After saying “you,” he corrects himself and says “ya’ll.” I think the faces and hands he holds are his daughter’s and his son’s: Baize and LaVander.

Lastly, My Favorite Clue: Color

LaVander and Baize mean lavender and green, respectively.

I think City named his kids after the most meaningful colors in his life. Look at this quote that explains how lavender and green have a particularly special place in City’s heart.

“From inside the woods, the purple-gray of the road cut through the green just enough that it was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen next to Shalaya Crump’s face. Any other color against that green wouldn’t have been so pretty, but this purple, gray, and green was more than pretty. This purple, green, and gray made me know that Shalaya Crump and I were meant to be kissing soon.”

— 20. They Went Swimming, p 153