Getting an opportunity at Coney Island is only the beginning.

Once Maurice convinces the adults around him that he belongs there, he has to prove that he can actually do the work.

In A Boy Who Lusts for Freedom: A True Brooklyn Story, Coney Island becomes more than rides, games, lights, and crowds.

For Maurice, it means work.

Money.

Purpose.

And another opportunity to be treated like the grown person he insists he already is.

There is one major problem.

Maurice is not seventeen.

When his father accompanies him to Coney Island, Maurice specifically asks him not to reveal his real age. Maurice tells Mark he is seventeen and later writes a false birth year on the employment paperwork to support the claim.

Once he starts working, however, talk alone will not carry him.

There are trucks to unload, supplies to move, equipment to carry, areas to clean, and instructions to follow.

Under Mark’s supervision, Maurice works hard. Mark notices his effort, and that approval matters to Maurice more than he wants anyone to know.

But Coney Island also exposes the contradiction in the independence Maurice is chasing.

He can work like an adult while still making decisions like a child.

Marijuana, late nights, and his growing relationship with Skip exist alongside his pride in having a real job.

Coney Island proves that Maurice is capable of more than people expect.

It also reveals how much he still does not understand about the world he is trying so hard to enter.