Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens by Anthology

Author:Anthology
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Captain, My Captain

FRANCISCO X. STORK

—TODAY IS THE day. Now or never.

That’s what Captain America has been telling Alberto since 2 a.m.

Now it is time to get up. Baby Chato is crying. Alberto can hear him in Lupe’s bedroom next door. Captain America told Alberto he could take Wayne’s gym bag, and it wouldn’t be stealing because Wayne pays him eight dollars an hour. Luis and Jimbo, the other members in Wayne’s painting crew, get fifteen dollars an hour, and some of those hours are spent drinking beer and talking on their cell phones. Captain America wants him to pack his best pair of pants, a dress shirt, and his new shoes along with some everyday clothes. There is a spiderweb in the ceiling of his room where two walls come together. Not once has Alberto seen the spider, even though flies get stuck there and are eaten.

—A well-dressed person can survive on the streets longer than one who is not. You can walk into a supermarket and take enough to live on if you don’t look like a bum. It’s not stealing, because you will write down whatever you take and pay them later.

Alberto can tell the spider eats the flies that get stuck in the web because he can see pieces of wings and tiny black legs. Captain America refuses to speak to him whenever Alberto studies the spiderweb.

—I don’t care for spiders and their traps. They are creatures of subterfuge.

Wayne’s full name is John Wayne, like the movie star. Lupe calls him John, but everyone else calls him Wayne and he doesn’t mind. Luis calls Alberto “Ventanas,” which is Spanish for windows, because Alberto is the best when it comes to painting window frames. Alberto paints the frames so carefully they don’t have to put tape along the edge of the glass.

—That’s no way to live. Stuck inside a room, moving a brush up and down, back and forth, ten hours a day.

Baby Chato’s cries are louder and more desperate. Alberto throws the covers off and puts on the white overalls on the chair next to his bed. The door to Lupe’s bedroom is open. He peeks in and sees Wayne facedown on the bed wearing nothing but boxer shorts. He’s clutching a pillow over his head. The side of the bed where Lupe sleeps is empty. Baby Chato stops crying as soon as Alberto lifts him from the crib.

—It’s Wayne’s baby, not yours. Let him take care of it.

There’s a tattoo of an eagle on Wayne’s shoulder. The eagle is like the one on the back of quarters.

—That’s a bald eagle, the symbol of our nation. It stands for freedom.

Alberto holds baby Chato against his chest. The diaper is heavy with pee. There’s a changing table next to the crib, and Alberto changes the diaper there. The talcum powder reminds him of the way his grandmother smelled in Mexico.

—The gym bag is in the closet, and Wayne is not going to lift his face from under that pillow.

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