Emmanuel dreams of Fela, one of five Black children murdered by George Wilson Dunn, a white man who was acquitted.

An employer cancels Emmanuel's job interview, claiming the company already has enough people of color on its staff.

Emmanuel joins Boogie and others in a park to attack a white couple in their car using a baseball bat.

Police arrive at the scene and immediately shoot Emmanuel dead after he stops Boogie from attacking the couple.

The narrator's mother produces a meal of chicken and rice despite their home having no gas or electricity.

Ben visits the McStowe family hoping to access their supply of Good but is invited to join rehabilitation instead.

The narrator confesses to Jaclyn that he paid the psychic ahead of her visit to encourage her to go through with the abortion.

The aspiring writer narrator hijacks the hospital's PA system and declares that everyone inside is healed.

Patients throughout the hospital are briefly healed and begin floating in the air before crashing back to the ground.

Isaiah attends his first Zimmer Land creative meeting and learns that children will soon be admitted to the park as patrons.

The narrator of Friday Black hands the last remaining parka to a feral shopper to stop the attack on his manager Angela.

The narrator's absent father reappears at the home improvement store shortly before the narrator's graduation.

Fuckton and Deirdra enter Porter's consciousness together and show him how little satisfaction he will gain from the shooting.

Florence helps an elderly Spanish-speaking woman find a red shirt, and the woman later returns specifically to thank her.

Ama, Ike, and their father stand against their house wall and welcome the next occurrence of the Flash together.

Pool 1 covers the headline events of Friday Black, beginning with Emmanuel's nightmare about the murdered Finkelstein Five and ending with Ama and her family welcoming the destructive Flash. The first third of the collection traces Emmanuel's fatal confrontation with racial injustice, a mother's miraculous meal, Ben's path toward recovery, and the emotional fallout of a manipulated abortion. In the middle stories, an aspiring writer briefly heals an entire hospital through a supernatural pact, a theme park actor watches children be inducted into a culture of racial violence, and a retail worker sacrifices his prize to save a colleague's life. The collection's second half follows a young man's unexpected role as family breadwinner, two souls working in the afterlife to stop a school shooting, and Florence's quiet act of customer care. Each of these events represents a decisive shift in its story's direction, building the full arc of the collection from crisis to resolution. Together, they reveal the book's central concern with violence, survival, and the unexpected forms that love and resistance can take.

The most important story beats across all twelve tales.

Boogie explains the Naming trend to Emmanuel at a bus stop and carves the number five into his own skin as a demonstration.

A mall employee stops Emmanuel after his purchase and demands he show a receipt for the dress shirt he just bought.

Dunn's defense attorney makes an emotional appeal that brings the judge to tears and frames the acquittal as protecting freedom.

Ben goes to the school nurse for an extra dose of Good and encounters his optimized sister Marlene on the way.

Ben's parents confront him about his dependency on Good and hide the home supply, causing withdrawal symptoms.

Leslie wishes Ben a happy birthday in the school cafeteria and invites him to celebrate at her family's home.

Two fetal spirits wake the narrator of Lark Street and demand to be taken to the psychic on Lark Street.

Jamie Lou confesses she killed her twin Jackie Gunner in retaliation for his constant bullying, citing their father's advice.

Isaiah performs his role in the Cassidy Lane module at Zimmer Land and is killed by a park patron.

Isaiah privately proposes changes to the Cassidy Lane module to park leadership, arguing it equates killing with justice, but they reject his ideas.

During his break, the narrator of Friday Black recalls a past Black Friday when a coworker served the team poisoned pie.

Duo abruptly quits his job on the sales floor and tells the narrator that winning a coat cannot prove his love.

Cato pulls the narrator aside at the home improvement store and urges him to leave while he still has the chance.

Billy Cropper, nicknamed Fuckton, shoots and kills Deirdra in a campus library, then shoots himself in a nearby bathroom.

Carl shoots Ama in the knee on Kennedy Street and kills her before she can shield her brother Ike.

Pool 2 traces the significant secondary moments that enrich the collection's major storylines, beginning with Boogie's demonstration of the Naming trend and Emmanuel's experience of racial profiling at the mall. The middle stories follow Ben's spiral through Good dependency, including a parental confrontation and an unexpected birthday invitation that draws him toward the compassionate McStowe family. A pair of fetal spirits haunt the narrator of Lark Street, and a shocking act of sibling violence exposes the narrator's inability to relinquish control. Isaiah's first run through the Cassidy Lane module and his rejected pitch to reform it reveal Zimmer Land's deep structural investment in racial violence. The retail sequence deepens through a past Black Friday sabotage, a coworker's sudden resignation, and a mentor's urgent advice, before the collection pivots to Fuckton's deadly library shooting and Carl's brutal ambush of Ama on Kennedy Street.

The key secondary moments that deepen each story's emotional stakes.

Emmanuel hits Boogie with an aluminum bat to stop him from attacking the white couple with a box cutter.

The narrator of Things My Mother Said discovers a patch of charred grass in the backyard and understands his mother's sacrifice.

Marlene arrives at the nurse's office to enforce Ben's Good restriction, and Ben shakes his head to refuse the dose.

Jaclyn is furious when the narrator admits he paid the psychic ahead of her visit to manipulate her decision about the abortion.

The aspiring writer narrator reveals he once made a pact with a supernatural being called the Twelve-tongued God to change the world through writing.

The Twelve-tongued God, disguised as a hospital nurse, taunts the aspiring writer and pushes him to fully use his gift.

Isaiah leaves Zimmer Land for the day and discovers his car covered in protest flyers left by anti-park demonstrators.

Isaiah's coworker Saleh urges him to quit Zimmer Land, but Isaiah refuses, still believing he can reform the park from within.

A regular patron who frequently kills Isaiah's character at Zimmer Land brings his young son into the Cassidy Lane module.

An infected shopper shows the narrator of Friday Black the television her husband wanted but could not afford except at the sale.

Deirdra enters Porter's mind to help but emerges believing she has deepened his resolve to carry out the shooting.

Porter secretly points a loaded gun at his mother through his bedroom door as she offers him food.

IceKing recalls covering for Florence to save her job as she takes over his sale and sends him on his break.

Ama experiences an unusual dream of her late mother between Loop iterations, an anomaly unlike anything she has dreamed before.

Ama subdues Carl by uncovering his hidden face and chooses to put him to sleep in her room rather than kill him.

Pool 3 highlights the turning points and revelations that determine how each story resolves, beginning with Emmanuel's fateful choice to stop Boogie with a bat. A patch of charred grass in a backyard quietly reveals a mother's extraordinary love, while Ben's refusal of a final dose of Good marks his first real step toward recovery. The narrator of Lark Street destroys Jaclyn's trust with a confession, and in The Hospital Where, a revealed supernatural pact and a deity's taunting pressure lead to a hospital-wide miracle. Isaiah's futile protest, a coworker's ultimatum, and a patron's decision to bring his son into a violent module expose the limits of working within a corrupt system. The collection's later stories turn on an infected shopper's lost television, a teenager's concealed gun, and a coworker's reluctant generosity, before Ama's anomalous dream signals hope and her merciful choice to spare Carl breaks the Loop's cycle of violence.

The pivotal decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define each story's outcome.