Free Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena

hit of jungle juice through a straw, hands off to Raul. “Trust me, Uno, that’s her aunt’s kid.”
    “Her
adopted
aunt, you mean? You know they ain’t even blood, right?”
    “What that means, Uno? Adopted family can’t have each other’s back?”
    Uno scoffs. “How you know anything about new girl, Chee? She ain’t been here but a few months. Never seen
y’all
two talkin’.”
    “Liberty’s aunt goes to the same church as my auntie Rosa. And she says back in Mexico—”
    “Hold up!” Uno interrupts. “Your Auntie
Rosa
? Now I
know
you lyin’. That old broad too fat to go to church.”
    Some of the guys break up a little.
    “Oh, I see,” Chico says, nodding, “you wanna talk about people’s weight now.”
    “She obese, Chee. I ain’t makin’ shit up.”
    Chico throws his hands in the air. Raul gives the juice to Lolo, who takes a long swig and moves it over to Rene. Rene holds the cup in front of his face for a few seconds without putting the straw to his lips.
    “I don’t talk about
tu padre,
” Chico says. “The fact he all stooped over when he walks.
Viejo con el bastón
. That don’t got nothin’ to do with if Liberty got a kid or not.”
    “You got principles,” Raul says.
    “I ain’t even gonna bring it up,” Chico says, turning to Raul. “Ain’t that right, Rah-rah?”
    “You the bigger man,” Raul says.
    Chico turns to Uno. “That’s right. I’m the bigger man, dawg.”
    Uno sips a little juice, says: “That’s cool ’cause we already cleared up who the bigger
woman
.”
    Everybody laughs and points at Chico. Rene finally sips the juice and passes it back to Raul.
    Uno looks over at Danny, catches him laughing. Gives him a little nod. “Guess the shit run in the family, Chee.” Uno taps sippers with Raul.
    “You cold, man,” Raul says.
    Danny listens to the fellas as they slowly circle back to the matter at hand: Liberty. But before they have a chance to revisit the kid controversy, the girls reemerge from the gallery raving about a particular painter’s work. They all go on and on about how women are so much more cultured than men. And the guys just sit there, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. Drinking their juice.
    After a while Sofia walks up to Danny holding out a full sipper. “Looking for this?” she says.
    Danny takes the handoff and pulls through the straw.
    Sofia empties the second half of a Pepsi can into a plant and takes the sipper back from Danny. She unscrews the cap, pours some juice into the Pepsi can and hands the can to Danny. “Take it slow, cuz.”
    “I will,” Danny says under his breath.
    As they tap drinks and take another sip each, Danny starts thinking about Liberty again. He decides it isn’t really her kid. She must have been babysitting.
    4
    Danny overhears Guita and Raquel’s conversation as they’re all feeding carrots and celery sticks to a pack of baby goats and sheep. Learns Liberty has just arrived here from Rosarito, Mexico.
    “The girl can’t barely even speak English,” Guita says, holding out a carrot, then dropping it to the ground when one of the goats gets too close with its teeth.
    “Is she legal?” Raquel says.
    “Her real dad’s American. White. I guess he’s a lawyer or something. She wrote him mad letters from Mexico and he made the arrangements.”
    Danny pets a nappy-headed sheep nearby and thinks about the letters he sends
his
dad. It’s weird that he and Liberty have been doing the same thing from opposite countries. And it’s weird that she doesn’t speak English and he doesn’t speak Spanish. How would they ever communicate? It’s almost like she’s his exact opposite.
    “But she doesn’t
live
with her dad.” Raquel holds a carrot out for a baby goat.
    “No, I know. He has another family in L.A. He got Lib in the country, set her up with a place to live and sends her money every month. But that’s it.”
    Guita takes a stick of celery from her feed bag, tentatively pushes it out