'And where do I come in?' I said. 'Or are we just making conversation?'
'I told him you'd help him,' Jeannie said.
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.
