In “Clarence and the Dead” Clarence Pickett is a preschool aged boy who can talk like an adult. When he is three years old he finds out that he can communicate with people who are dead. He starts to tell the people in his town of news he has heard from the deceased people he communicates with. For example, recall how he tells Emma Chaney that her husband is cheating on her. When the people are shocked at what Clarence says, he responds that Miss Ruella (who has been dead long before Clarence was born) told him to say this.

Some people are upset by the things Clarence says and judge him and beat him for them. But other people find his advice helpful, even if it is eerie. For example, he tells people in the town that a particular person will die later that day, and his prediction ends up being correct. He also helps people find things they have lost. For example, consider how the narrator says that “he told one person where they put an old insurance policy they’d lost, another where they mislaid their keys.” These little bits of knowledge are helpful in keeping some of the townspeople’s lives in order.