Free Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena Page A

toward one of the goats.
    Raquel grabs Guita’s hand, makes her keep still while the goat nibbles at the celery, lips all over both their fingers. They let out little squeals and crack up.
    A few people turn to look at them.
    Danny sips from his Pepsi can, watching them. If only he can find his dad in Ensenada once he lands there. Everything will be okay if he can just find him.
    “She’s too pretty,” Raquel says. “That’s the only real reason I got a problem with her.”
    “Nah, but she’s nice, girl.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah, we talk sometimes. In Spanish, like I said.”
    Guita and Raquel hand a goat and a sheep a few more carrots and celery sticks and then drop their empty feed bag in the trash and head out of the petting zoo together.
    Danny stays put for a while. He feels the warmth of alcohol coating his insides. Watches a little girl, dressed in a blue polka-dot dress, cautiously approach a small sheep. Watches her reach out, touch its soft, bushy back and then spin around to look at her mom and dad. Her smiling dad fumbles through a backpack and pulls out a digital camera.
    The girl giggles and turns to pet the sheep again.
    Her dad aims the camera and takes her picture.
    Danny reaches up to touch the stitches in the back of his head.

    Dear Dad:
    Everything is working out so perfectly down here. I almost can’t believe it. I’ve made friends with all the guys. Sofe’s friends. We hang out at the movies and at the baseball field, sometimes we cruise to the mall. Tonight they dragged me to the Del Mar Fair. And at one point, in the middle of the petting zoo, I thought of you. I was feeding celery to one of the animals, and I thought: Man, I bet my dad used to do this all the time, considering he worked at the Wild Animal Park.
    Anyway, I wanted to tell you about my new girlfriend, Liberty. She’s tall and beautiful and has this amazingly straight hair that hangs to the middle of her back. And it’s so shiny, Dad. She must brush it all the time. She has lighter skin than you and I, but her eyes are big and brown and darker than anything you’ve ever seen. It makes her look mysterious. Everybody says she could be a model. If she wanted to. But she doesn’t. She’s too modest.
    Thing is, Dad, she’s more than just a pretty face. She’s really smart, too. Even though she barely speaks English, she’s way smarter than any of the white girls at my private school. And she really likes me. Just last night, while we were walking back from the park, she turned to me and said: “I don’t want to scare you, Danny, but I maybe love you. Is that okay?” I said, “Yeah, Lib, it’s cool.” And then we kept walking. I didn’t say it back ’cause I remember you telling me one time it’s best to take it slow with girls. Or else you’ll wake up when you’re seventeen and find yourself married with a kid. Like what happened to you and Uncle Tommy.
    She wasn’t mad or anything. Maybe when I’m closer to making it to the big leagues I’ll say it. And I bet we’ll still be together. I’ve been with tons of girls over the past few years, but with Lib it feels different.
    Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is that Lib’s from Mexico, too. Like you. And she’s half white like me—it’s her dad that’s white. I was thinking, maybe when I come visit you I could bring Lib. And you could meet her. See how pretty she is for yourself.
    5
    The most significant thing Danny learns at the fair has nothing to do with Liberty. Not directly, anyway.
    He learns that jungle juice makes him feel light as a feather. That it makes him feel ten feet tall. But still slick on his feet. Makes him feel like smiling and talking to anybody and everybody, at any time—though he hasn’t.
    Danny opens his eyes, finds himself sitting against a chain-link fence behind a cotton candy stand. He looks out over the booths in front of him, sees Uno and Chico and Raul and Rene and Lolo all shooting water balloons with BB guns to make