The Boy in the Black Suit: Chapters 1–3

by Jason Reynolds
After the death of his mother, Matt takes a job at a funeral home, where he learns to deal with his own grief and loneliness. Learn these words from the award-winning novel by Jason Reynolds.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapters 10–12, Chapters 13–17

Here are links to our lists for other books by Jason Reynolds: When I Was the Greatest, All American Boys, Long Way Down, Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sympathetic
    expressing compassion or friendly fellow feelings
    And to top it all off, he was trying hard to be sympathetic to me, his pretty normal, now really sad homeboy.
  2. lame
    pathetically lacking in force or effectiveness
    I’m sorry you weren’t there to hear the lame choir drag out, song after song.
  3. invincible
    incapable of being overcome or subdued
    It was like all of sudden high school became . . . high school. A bunch of immature, irresponsible teens who felt invincible only because they’d never really been through nothing.
  4. stale
    lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration
    I sat down and started filling out the application, trying to block out the stale smell of old grease and the sounds of all the people coming in and out, yelling and cracking jokes, kids skipping school, construction workers on their lunch breaks, junkies begging for biscuits, and just about anybody else you could possibly imagine.
  5. accommodation
    the act of providing something to meet a need
    Man, it’s a funeral. Well, really it’s a repast. They didn’t have anyone to cater it, so they paid the funeral home extra for us to take care of the accommodations.
  6. option
    one of a number of things from which only one can be chosen
    Even though Mr. Ray said he understood where I was coming from, I still felt a little stupid turning down his offer when the only other option was to work in a grimy chicken spot. But on the other hand, it just didn’t seem like a good idea to take a job somewhere where I’d have to relive my mom’s funeral everyday.
  7. duty
    work you are obliged to perform
    I just nodded and started filling out the address line, signing myself up for fry-duty. But it was either that or die-duty. Lose-lose.
  8. podium
    a platform raised above the surrounding level
    Just rows of padded fold-ups and a wooden podium in the front.
  9. tentacle
    a flexible appendage adapted for grasping or feeling
    I felt a little silly, not because I was at a random funeral, but because my arms looked like tentacles in Mr. Ray's huge suit jacket. It fit me okay in the shoulders because Mr. Ray was skinny, but the sleeves were way too long.
  10. grief
    intense sorrow caused by loss of a loved one
    I wanted to lean over to that old lady and tell her that I was sorry for the stench and that I hoped it didn’t cause her more grief than she was already feeling.
  11. pamphlet
    a small book usually having a paper cover
    I kept feeling something sticking me in my chest, so I reached my hand into the jacket to see what kept poking me. Of course, not thinking, I pulled out what had to be at least ten cancer pamphlets.
  12. reminisce
    recall the past
    Mouse smiled, flashing a big gap in his two front teeth, as if he was suddenly reminiscing in his mind about some of those moments.
  13. maneuver
    direct the course of or determine the direction of traveling
    Mouse maneuvered his way back to his seat, bumping just about everything and everyone.
  14. colander
    bowl-shaped strainer used to wash or drain foods
    That was our joke, that cooking is what girls really like. Her telling me that definitely made me feel better about being a dude and knowing what a whisk and a colander are.
  15. bodega
    small shop selling groceries, especially in a Hispanic area
    Still, instead of just whipping up something quick (we always at least had pasta in the house, and I didn’t need to check the notebook to boil water), off to the bodega I went with two dollars crumpled in my pocket.
  16. ignorant
    uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication
    The only reason I knew he was from Pakistan is because I asked. My mother made me. “Don’t be ignorant,” she used to say.
  17. hospice
    a program of medical care for the terminally ill
    It had been a minute since I had hung out with anyone—since when my mother transferred to the hospice wing of the hospital.
  18. bouquet
    an arrangement of flowers that is usually given as a present
    What’s the point of getting somebody you care for something they can’t do anything with but look at for a few days until it dies. Just seems cruel. But my mom, she loved them. The day she passed, she gave away all the flowers to the nurses, except one bouquet.
  19. numb
    not showing human feeling or sensitivity
    And from what I could tell, we were both already numb.
  20. usher
    someone employed to conduct others
    In the dream I was at a church, the same church my mom’s funeral was in, except this time the air conditioner was cranking. The same people were there. The greasy preacher. Ms. Wallace, my mom’s co-worker. The same usher women with their ashy-looking stockings and white shoes.
  21. howl
    emit long loud cries
    A loud thump. Then, the sound of glass breaking followed by my father howling like a sad dog.
  22. slur
    utter indistinctly
    His words were slurring. I ran down the steps to find him on one knee, holding on to the kitchen counter, trying to pull himself up.
  23. reflex
    an automatic instinctive unlearned reaction to a stimulus
    I knew it wasn’t better, but it’s one of those questions he had asked me a hundred times when I was growing up. It’s like a reflex. When I fell off my bike and scraped my arms all up, he slapped Band-Aids on them and said, “Better?”
  24. ooze
    release in drops or small quantities
    I didn’t come downstairs and find him with his forehead slammed against the kitchen table, drool oozing from his mouth like slime, which is definitely what I was expecting.
  25. smirk
    smile in a mocking or condescending way
    My father smirked. “Hey, it’s your funeral.” He’s said that line tons of times, but on this day it stung, and even pissed me off a little since I was literally just babysitting him a few hours before. I wanted to say back, and it was almost yours last night.
  26. cringe
    draw back, as with fear, pain, or embarrassment
    I turned toward the front door, but then he began scratching scratching scratching his butter knife against his toast, the sound making me cringe inside.
  27. constant
    uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing
    It was another one of Brooklyn’s crappy fall days, where the clouds make nine in the morning look like six in the evening, but the rain just won’t come down. Instead there’s a constant mist like someone or something is continuously spitting on you. Gross.
  28. gossip
    light informal conversation for social occasions
    I bumped around from locker to classroom, dodging varsity jackets, chicks with fresh doobie wraps peering into cheap, stick-on locker mirrors, making fish faces while applying lip gloss, gossip hanging above our heads like cigarette smoke.
  29. grieve
    feel intense sorrow, especially due to a loss
    My classmates probably just thought the suit was some sort of grieving thing. Like I was making some kind of point, which I’m sure they all thought was weird. But I didn’t really care because, like I said, high school seemed like nothing to me now.
  30. misery
    a feeling of intense unhappiness
    I sat in class and replayed in my mind, over and over again, that watery look in her eyes, the weird thought of her face fighting itself to smile, and the strange satisfaction I got watching it all go down. I felt bad about it, but I also felt good about it. Maybe misery really does love company.
Created on Wed Jul 12 17:32:12 EDT 2017 (updated Wed Oct 31 11:02:21 EDT 2018)

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