Men We Reaped

In Chapter 4 Ward introduces Demond, a close friend of her sister Nerissa whom the author came to know in 2003. The author meets Demond in Nerissa’s first apartment, which she acquired after being kicked out of her mother’s home following a disagreement over how to raise her young son De’Sean. Nerissa’s position as the middle child colors her “sense of self,” causing her to “want to act out, to be special to someone: her parents, the boys drawn to her by her beauty and her funny, casual coolness” (63). Nerissa introduces Ward to Demond and, throughout the year, they party in excess in search of release.

A native to DeLisle, Demond grows up an only child in a two-parent family. After graduating high school, Demond joins the military for four years before returning to Mississippi. Described as a hustler, Demond learns trade after trade in multiple manual labor jobs at various factories in a changing economy shifting away from manufacturing. Demond reminds Ward of her brother.

As a witness to a shooting, Demond agrees to testify against an alleged shooter and against a drug dealer operating in DeLisle. On the night of his death, Demond is heading home after working a late-night shift “when someone [steps] out of the bushes in front of Demond’s house and [shoots] him as he [walks] up to his door, tired and grimy with dried sweat, wanting a shower, maybe a beer” (70).