Who is Royce?

Royce is a young, tough-looking black boy who sometimes sleeps in the garden. The gardeners are afraid of him until they get to know him. They learn that Royce has a stutter. He sleeps in the garden because his father beat him and he does not want to go home. He has two sisters and likes the cats that live in the garden. Royce is among the men who run after a man who takes a woman’s purse at knifepoint, Royce pins the man against a wall with his pitchfork until the police arrive. When Curtis first discovers that someone is stealing his tomatoes, he hires Royce to protect his produce.