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probably wasn’t. I stayed in my seat when everybody was clapping after she finished inspiring us, hoping that Beecher would just let Sgt. Cabrera walk back to the office herself since she knew where it was, but both of them stood there and smiled at me, so I had to be her escort again.
    I thought Sgt. Cabrera would give me a lecture or maybe ask me a bunch of questions on the way to the office, but she didn’t. She just asked me did I like to read and I said yes only please don’t tell anybody because I got a reputation to maintain, and she said I should read
The Four Agreements
by this guy named Don Miguel Ruiz.
    “It’s a real short book,” she said, “and it sounds too simple, but if you really think about what it says, you realize it’s very deep and it can change your life.”
    I nodded but I didn’t say what I was thinking was that my life could use some change but not the kind you get from reading a little book. My life would need an encyclopedia.
    “It might even make you decide to graduate, muchacho.” Sgt. Ca brera winked at me like we had some big secret going and I was glad there was nobody else around.
    “It’s not up to me,” I said. “I don’t have enough credits and I’m flunking biology.”
    “You’re only a junior,” Sgt. Cabrera said. “You have a whole summer and another year ahead of you. Why not think positive? Your thoughts create your intentions and your intentions create your reality.” She winked at me again. “That’s from the book.”
    “Yeah, thanks,” I said, and then I walked faster so I could get that crazy cop to the office and get rid of her. She must of gone to high school or they wouldn’t let her join the police but she must of forgot what it’s like. If you want to graduate high school, you have to be a liar. You have to pretend youcare about stuff you don’t care about, like what does a frog’s guts look like and how to multiply fractions, and you have to keep your mouth shut when you feel like talking but then you have to talk when you don’t feel like it, except you have to say what you’re supposed to say and not what you really think. You have to wear clothes you don’t like and act respectful to people who need a good punch in the face.
    Papi is always telling me to just act like I respect everybody and life will be easier. Like he always tells me to just shut up and do what the teachers tell me and I won’t have any more troubles. And I know he tells me to keep my big fat
boca
shut because he can’t do it, neither, which is why he doesn’t have a job right now. He always gets hired on construction crews when they first start up because he’s big and fast. He can swing a hammer with both hands so good that he only needs one hit per nail and if they put him on one end of a two-by-twelve and a guy with a nail gun on the other end, they end up meeting in the middle. But if the boss talks down to him or says one thing about wetbacks or beaners or sometimes if they even just ask if anybody wants Taco Bell for lunch, Papi just flips the guy off and picks up his lunch pail and heads for his truck. And the next time that foreman needs a crew, Papi doesn’t even try to get on because he would have to say he was sorry when he wasn’t.
    If it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t even stay in school for one second, but I promised her I would graduate and set a good example for Letty and Juanito and my little cousins. Ididn’t promise her on purpose, but I promised her and she never forgets that kind of stuff, especially since I don’t hardly hang around with her too much anymore. We used to sit in the living room and read sometimes after supper and sometimes even on the weekend if I didn’t have something better to do, but now I rather read by myself. Not that I don’t like my mother—I even love her—but after you get to be like ten years old it’s too weird to sit around with your mother.
    That’s what I was doing when I accidentally promised to