Uncle Freddie was in the garage lifting weights. Without greeting him, José hung the racket back on the wall. Uncle Freddie lowered the weights, sat up, and asked, “So how did it go?”
José didn’t feel like lying. He lifted his T-shirt and showed his uncle the big red mark the ball had raised on his back. “She’s bad.”
“It could have been your face,” Freddie said as he wiped away sweat and lay back down on his bench. “Too bad.”
José sat on a pile of bundled newspapers, hands in his lap. When his uncle finished his “reps,” José got up slowly. He peeled the weights down to sixty pounds. It was his turn to lift. He needed strength to mend his broken heart and for the slight chance that Stinger might come back, looking for another victory.
Gary Soto
Gary Soto (1952– ) was born in Fresno, California. When Soto was five, his father was killed in a factory accident. His mother was left alone to raise her three children with little money. Soto uses his experiences growing up a poor Mexican American in Fresno to create many of his stories and characters. He has written many books, poems, and short stories for young people.