Summary

This story is narrated by a nameless protagonist in the first person. The story opens in New Jersey, where the protagonist lives with his mother. His mother tells him that his old friend, Beto, has returned home after his second year of college. The protagonist states in narration that “[Beto is] a pato now but two years ago we were friends” (91). (“Pato” is Spanish and literally translates to “duck,” but in this context, it is slang for homosexual.) The protagonist shifts to past tense narration as he recalls when he and Beto were still friends. Two years ago, “Beto was leaving for college at the end of the summer and was delirious from the thought of it—he hated everything about the neighborhood” (91). Meanwhile, the protagonist still had one more year of high school. Beto and the protagonist spent time committing acts of vandalism...