Friday Black

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2018

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“Light Spitter”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“Light Spitter” Summary

Content Warning: This story depicts a school shooting and references anti-gay language.

A college student named Billy Cropper writes his nickname—“Fuckton”—on his forehead. Guided by thoughts of power and annihilation, he brings a pistol he calls Whiptail to the campus library and kills Deirdra, another student who has come to complete her class readings. Filled with a sudden sense of remorse, Fuckton goes to the nearest bathroom, where he spares another student and then shoots himself.

The souls of Fuckton and Deirdra meet outside the bathroom. Deirdra is “transcending,” appearing as an angel with two black horns on her head that occasionally burst into flame. Fuckton manifests as a ghost who, according to Deirdra, hasn’t fully died yet and will soon fade out of existence. Deirdra resents Fuckton for killing her, but when Fuckton reaches out to her, they are transported to the house of a troubled teen named Porter Lanks.

Porter is a reserved teen who expresses deep personal anguish when he is alone. Fuckton and Deirdra are briefly transported back to the bathroom stall, where paramedics hold back on saving Fuckton’s life. Fuckton reaches out for one of the medics and experiences a vision of the medic’s life. Soon after, Fuckton and Deirdra are returned to Porter’s room.

Fuckton, remembering his own life, explains that his nickname was given to him by bullies. As Porter continues to express his rage, Fuckton explains his behavior as the result of prolonged social ostracism. Deirdra resolves to help Porter and disappears into his mind. After Fuckton reflects on his suffering, Deirdra reappears, believing that she has worsened Porter’s problems. Porter voices out his allegiance to the Order of the Stingray, a call that Fuckton originated in his suicide note. The Order believes that those like Porter and Fuckton deserve more than what life has given them. Fuckton realizes that he can relate to Porter’s experience, sharing his memory of an imaginary friend he used to bully to make himself feel better.

Porter’s mother approaches the room to offer him some food. Porter keeps her at the door, secretly pointing a gun he owns in her direction. Deirdra re-enters Porter’s mind to pacify him, which she does successfully. One of her horns is replaced by a halo. Nevertheless, Porter packs his gun into his bag and is resolved to carry out the shooting to make others feel as bad as he does. When Fuckton asks what Deirdra did to pacify Porter, she reveals that she reminded him who his mother was. This sends them to the room of Deirdra’s grieving mother, Melanie, where Deirdra’s remaining horn disintegrates.

Melanie attempts to overdose on prescription pills, prompting Deirdra to go into her mind and console her. Deirdra and Fuckton are then transported back to Porter’s room, where he is preparing to go to school. Fuckton tells Deirdra to show him that things “could be worse” (145), explaining how it made him feel to be left alone in college. Fuckton denounces his former beliefs.

As Porter draws closer to the school, Deirdra tries showing him once more that things could be better. Fuckton offers to join her and share his experience with Porter, even if it means he won’t survive the process. Embodying Porter, they live through a vision of the shooting, allowing him to see what little satisfaction he will gain from carrying it out and how lonely he will be at the end of it. The story ends with a weeping Porter going to a bathroom stall to revise graffiti that was written to demean him.

“Light Spitter” Analysis

The dichotomy between Fuckton and Deirdra is the driving force of “Light Spitter,” which is resolved by having them work together to stop history from repeating itself. Where most narratives might frame Deirdra as a sympathetic figure and Fuckton as an oppressor or antagonist, Adjei-Brenyah portrays both characters as sympathetic protagonists with their own sets of motivations, frustrations, and resolutions.

One of the ways the author subverts the conventional framing of this dichotomy is by alternating between their perspectives at the beginning of the story. Fuckton is introduced as a scornful yet clumsy character; he has a vindictive agenda but is prone to errors like writing the “F” of his nickname backward. Meanwhile, Deirdra is introduced through the eyes of her mother, who can only see her in terms of her goodness. It isn’t until Fuckton fires the first shot that the story’s focus is made clear. Even then, the story doesn’t really begin until Fuckton and Deirdra meet in the afterlife, which turns The Transformative Power of Magical Thinking into a thematic lens for the story. Friday Black discusses how violence is often a misguided or empty gesture; vindictive violence doesn’t provide the satisfaction or resolution the perpetrator is looking for. This is reflected in the way “Light Spitter” chiefly takes place in a spiritual realm after Fuckton’s shooting—though he has carried out his attack, he hasn’t healed the hurt part of himself but is given another chance to do so as a spirit.

The story shows how Fuckton and Deirdra each possess something that the other lacks. On one hand, Deirdra has access to the kind of love and security that Fuckton so desperately wants, which is precisely what makes her a perfect target in his eyes. On the other hand, Deirdra wants to change Porter’s mind but lacks the perspective that Fuckton shares with him. In the latter, the story finds room to explore The Normalization of Violence, discussing not only Fuckton’s reasons for carrying out his shooting but finding ways to resolve those reasons through empathy and the desire to help others. When Fuckton and Deirdra acknowledge that they have to work together to help Porter, the dichotomy falls apart. Fuckton no longer uses violence to make others see his pain but commits an act of self-sacrifice to affect someone else’s life for the better. He succeeds and Porter abandons his plan, emphasizing that empathy is the path toward peace rather than retaliatory violence.