Chasing the Bear

Chapter 34

Jeannie and I sat with Aurelio Lopez on a bench outside a bodega in the Mexican neighborhood that everyone called Chihuahua. He was a smallish kid, slim, with longish black hair and big dark eyes. One eye was bruised and swollen half shut.

"I don't even think of myself as a Mexican," he said. "I don't wake up in the morning and think, you are Mexican, you dog. My father came up here before I was born to work in the mine. I never even been to Mexico."

I nodded.

"This stuff happen to a lot of Mexican kids or just you?" I said.

Aurelio shrugged.

"I'm small," he said. "I'm easy to pick on."

"So," I said. "How many guys are there?"

"I don't know, about ten, I guess," Aurelio said. "They pick on the girls too."

"Mexican girls?" I asked.

"Yes."

"They ever tease you?" I said to Jeannie.

"Sometimes," she said. "When I'm with Aurelio. They call me names."

"Like what?"

"Spick lover," she said. "Beaner girl."

I made a face.

"So who are these guys?" I said.

"I don't know," Aurelio said. "I don't hang with any Anglos except Jeannie."

"Well, I guess we'll probably find out," I said.

"I wish I was a tough guy," Aurelio said. "Like you, Spenser. But I'm not."

"Everybody gotta be what they are," I said.

Jeannie looked at me.

"What are you going to do?" she said.

"I can walk to and from school with you every day," I said to Aurelio. "If you want."

Aurelio nodded.

"But what are you going to do against ten guys?" he said.

"Excellent question," I said.

"Do you have an excellent answer?" Jeannie said.

"Not yet," I said.