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Outlaw
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in When Will There Be Good News?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past
Appearances vs. Reality
Lies and Deceptions
Family
Summary
Analysis
Reggie stops by Mr. Hussain’s shop on the corner of her street. She’s still thinking about Joanna, wishing Joanna had taken Reggie along to look after the baby on her trip. Reggie buys a newspaper (headline: “CARNAGE!”) and a candy bar and chats with Mr. Hussain. Then she heads to her flat and finds a note affixed to the door with chewing gum. It says, “Reggie Chase: you cant hide from us.” The front door is also unlocked. She wonders if Billy has been here. When she goes inside, it takes a moment for her to realize that the entire flat has been trashed. All her school papers and books are heaped in the middle of the living room, and everything else has been smashed or otherwise destroyed. In the bathroom she finds a spray-painted message, “Your dead.” Reggie figures it must be Billy’s friends; “Billy knew a lot of ungrammatical people.” Her home feels desecrated.
Mr. Hussain, Reggie’s supervisor during her occasional store shifts, is another kind figure in the support system she’s pulled together for herself. No sooner does she get home, however, than she’s confronted with yet another traumatic event—her apartment has been violated, apparently by people with whom Billy has gotten tangled up. Even her beloved books and school things have been ruined—suggesting that, given her vulnerable position as orphaned and impoverished, the safe world Reggie has carved out for herself is inherently fragile.
Themes
Suddenly a hand shoves Reggie, and she hits her head in the shower as she falls. She sees two young, “thuggish” men, one ginger and one blond. The latter is holding a knife. Terrified, Reggie tries to reason with the men, telling them she hasn’t seen Billy in ages. They look confused and insist that they’re looking for a “guy called Reggie.” Surprisingly, they leave, but one of them tosses her one of Ms. MacDonald’s Loeb editions as a message for her brother. It’s the first volume of the Iliad. When Reggie opens it, she finds that it’s been hollowed out with a knife.
Terrorized by the two strangers, Reggie now finds out what became of the mysteriously missing Loeb volume. Its hollowed state suggests that Billy, known to be good with his hands, has worked on it. Again, her world, the things she loves, has been trespassed upon once again, this time by a family member who’s supposed to have her back. Reggie, in other words, is truly alone.
Themes
One of the thugs pops his head back in to warn Reggie not to go to the police, or they’ll kill her. After he leaves again, Reggie vomits. She hurries to the bus stop, unable to reach either Billy or Dr. Hunter. The threatening message feels applicable—“your dead.” Reggie has enough dead people in her life. She thinks about her earlier call with Neil Hunter; she’d heard Sadie barking in the background. Dr. Hunter wouldn’t have gone somewhere without Sadie.
Reggie is further traumatized by this encounter, on top of the dramatic events of last night and the events she’s lately encountered. Yet she’s still mindful of the people she loves most, namely Dr. Hunter. Observant as ever, Reggie suspects that all isn’t as it should be with her beloved employer.
Themes
