'Them?'
'Mexicans,' Turk said. 'You gonna protect him?'
'I'm gonna protect him,' I said.
'I never had you figured for a spick lover, man.'
Mr. Hartley said, 'I'd like some quiet, please, in the back of the room.'
We sat still, and when Mr. Hartley looked back down at his notes, I whispered to Turk, 'Just leave him alone.'
Mr. Hartley looked up again and saw Turk and me looking at him innocently, eager for knowledge.
Chapter 38
The low buildings of the Back Bay were dark. They looked, with the effusive sunset behind them, like a stage setting.
Standing on the little bridge, Susan and I turned and rested our hips on the bridge bulwark and looked at it.
'That's very pretty,' Susan said.
'And it happens every day,' I said.
'I've heard that,' Susan said. 'Was Aurelio really gay?'
'Don't know,' I said.
'You didn't ask him?'
'No,' I said.
'You didn't care,' Susan said.
'No,' I said. 'Didn't then and don't now.'
'Mexican either,' Susan said.
'Nope,' I said. 'Mexican either. I never cared about that stuff.'
I grinned at her.
'Besides, I was a little hazy on exactly what it meant to be gay,' I said.
'Did they keep bothering you?' Susan said.
'Not bad, for a while. They teased us a little, but I didn't have to fight anybody.'
'Were they scared of you?'
'Maybe a little scared,' I said. 'They knew I could fight. But, you know, I played ball with a lot of the guys. I knew most of them. They all knew I'd punched out Croy Davis, who was two years older than I was. And I kept telling them to lay off Aurelio.'
'And they listened?'
'Some,' I said.
'So you were able to stop walking to school with him after a while.'
'I was, until a bunch of Mexican kids beat the crap out of an Anglo kid and everybody started taking sides.'
'Which, unless you were more different in those days than I think you were, wasn't your style.'
