Aunt Ester tells Citizen to visit Jilson Grant in preparation for his trip to the City of Bones. She says that Jilson Grant has to give him a piece of iron before he makes the journey. But Citizen doesn’t find him. Whether or not Jilson Grant is even a real person remains unclear in the play—it’s possible that Aunt Ester simply wanted Citizen to feel slightly underprepared for the experience, perhaps to put him on his guard and infuse the entire process with a slight sense of fear. In the end, Solly gives him a chain link from his days of enslavement, which he says brings good luck.