Summary

The collection’s second story opens in the second person: “Let’s say your given name is Adrano Rontal, but they call you Rocky” (5). When the story opens, Rocky is ten years old. He grows up in a large poor family in southern California, and although he has older brothers, he is the one who tries to protect his mother when his father comes home angry and violent after drinking binges. After Rocky’s mother kicks his father out of the house, the family is left without a reliable source of income, and Rocky begins stealing food to support the family. As he gets older, he obtains a gun and starts stealing cars and eventually, with a local gang, begins committing armed robberies of liquor and convenience stores.

A rival gang from Los Angeles comes to Rocky’s neighborhood and...