Mexican WhiteBoy (21 page)

A New Light on the Recycling Plant

1

Danny and Uno are back down at the train tracks, tossing rocks to tell the future. They’ve already gone through four or five rounds. Danny hit five on seeing Liberty again. Uno hit three on playing organized baseball next year. Danny hit five on checking out Oxnard someday. Uno only hit two on Manny moving out of the halfway house. Danny hit five on Sofia going to college. Uno hit four on him getting along with his old man.

As they’ve played, the night’s moved along quickly. Every once in a while Danny looks over his shoulder at the recycling plant. He remembers the night he and Liberty sat together right across the street from it. He thinks about their kiss earlier tonight. His first ever, though he would never tell Uno that.

Uno picks up his last rock and looks back at Danny. “Know what this one’s on?” he says.

“What?”

“This is on me and you takin’ a little trip tomorrow morning, before your moms comes down to get you.”

Danny looks up at Uno, confused. “To where?”

Uno nods for a couple seconds, says: “Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego. See your old man.”

Danny looks back at him, doesn’t say anything.

Uno turns around, tosses the first rock: hits the right side. He fires the second one: misses.

“What do you mean?” Danny says.

Uno fires the third: dead center. Fires the fourth: misses. Uno turns around. “Did a little research, man. Tomorrow morning is visiting hours. Ten to twelve.”

Danny hops off the track, walks closer to Uno.

“Two for four,” Uno says. “Still gotta hit this last one, D. You ready?” Uno turns back around, toes the line, aims. He fires the fifth: hits dead center.

Uno turns to Danny again, shrugs. “Only if you want to, though,” he says. “Your dad got transferred there six months ago.”

Danny stares at Uno in silence, his skin tingling. Could he actually do that? See his dad? Would his dad want to see
him
?

Uno sits on the opposite rail, picks up a stick and tosses it over his shoulder. They’re both silent for a couple minutes. Danny finally sits down, says: “You really found out where he is?”

Uno nods.

“And we could go there?”

“If you want to.”

Danny sits there awhile, trying to collect his thoughts. This is everything he’s wanted over the past few years. But does he want it anymore? Over the last couple days he’s decided that maybe he’s okay without his dad. Maybe he can make it on his own. Even when bad things happen. But on the other hand, he’s still curious. He picks up a rock by one of his Vans and looks at Uno. “I wanna go.”

“Then we’re goin’,” Uno says. “I know the buses we gotta take and everything. Got it all written down. We’ll easily be back in time for your moms to pick you up.”

Danny nods.

“One last bus ride.”

Danny nods.

They’re quiet for a while, then Uno says: “Guess we should get back then, man. It’s mad late already. We gotta get up early.”

Uno drops another stick, stands up and starts down the tracks. But Danny doesn’t follow.

Uno turns around. “You comin’?”

Danny shakes his head. “Let’s stay,” he says. “Maybe we could watch the sunrise.”

A smile comes over Uno’s face. He nods. “Yeah,” he says. “A sunrise.” He walks back toward Danny and sits back down. Picks up a stick and twirls it in his fingers.

And for the next hour or so this is where they stay. Sitting across from each other. Sometimes talking. Sometimes not. Danny tries to imagine how his dad might react to seeing him again. Will he be happy? Will he look different? Will he talk? Will he say anything about the letters? Or what happened with his mom? He touches his fingers to the part of his sleeve that covers the cut he made on his arm. He can’t imagine what was going through his head when he did it. Feels miles and miles away from that now.

Across from him, Uno looks to be deep in thought, too. Probably thinking about his own dad, Danny figures. About Oxnard and making a fresh start. Trying to envision how his life will change once he’s left National City, the only home he’s ever known.

It’s the last night of the summer. And here they are sitting together, waiting for tomorrow. But at the same time, not wanting to waste any of tonight on sleep.

A little later Danny’s pulled out of his head when Uno tosses a rock against his arm. He points toward the recycling plant, where the first few rays of sunlight are creeping over the industrial mass. Danny stares at the dull haze of morning. And Uno’s dad was right. It really
is
something. In a National City kind of way. The plant is ugly, a giant eyesore in the middle of the city, but it’s beautiful, too. It’s a part of the landscape, and he feels lucky to be awake to see it like this.

The two of them sit in silence and stare at the pale colors slowly fingering their way into the dark sky, around the recycling plant. Even when they hear the rumble of a distant train, neither of them moves. They stay with the sky. The moment. Soon they’ll have to get up, get out of the way. They’ll have to leave the tracks altogether and hop on the specific bus Uno has written down. The one that’ll take Danny to the prison for visiting hours, where he and his dad will sit across from each other for the first time in over three years. And his dad will say something to him. He’ll actually hear his voice. And after that the summer will be over. And his and Uno’s lives will continue on in different directions. To different schools in different cities. But for now Danny’s happy right where he is. Sitting on the train tracks. With his best friend. Watching a sunrise.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’d like to thank the following people for helping make this novel possible: my agent, Steven Malk, for his patience, guidance and heated sports rants; Krista Marino, who helped me mold a collection of unorganized, passionate ideas into a real book; everybody at Random House, for their hard work and support; Spencer Figueroa, my best friend and creative sounding board; Matt Van Buren, who has read and commented on every page in this book (
three
times); Brin Hill and David Yoo, for being so honest in their work and friendship; Rob Jones, who’s been in my literary corner from the start; Albert de la Peña, for talking books with me for hours (and inspiring thousands with his recent on-screen performance); Roni de la Peña, for inspiring me to be somebody; Tina Gonzales and Erica Lopez, who helped me paint in the color of street Spanish; Gretchen Wolfe, Tanya DiFrancesco, Elliott Smith, Sufjan Stevens, Saul Bellow, Denis Johnson; and Caroline Sun, the prettiest, smartest, most talented Brooklyn girl one could ever hope to meet—and I met her.

Mexican WhiteBoy
is
Matt de la Peña
’s second novel for young readers. His first novel,
Ball Don’t Lie,
was an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA-YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and will soon be a major motion picture. He attended the University of the Pacific on a basketball scholarship and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at San Diego State University. De la Peña lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he teaches creative writing.

ALSO BY MATT DE LA PEÑA

Ball Don’t Lie

Published by Delacorte Press
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.

New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2008 by Matt de la Peña

All rights reserved.

Delacorte Press and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

www.randomhouse.com/teens

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Peña, Matt de la.

Mexican whiteboy / Matt de la Peña. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.

[1. Identity—Fiction. 2. Self-acceptance—Fiction. 3. Racially mixed people—Fiction. 4. Baseball—Fiction. 5. Fathers and sons—Fiction. 6. Cousins—Fiction. 7. National City (Calif.)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.P3725Mex 2008

[Fic]—dc22

2007032302

Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

eISBN: 978-0-375-89118-2

v3.0