Part 9 Summary and Analysis

At her father's home in the Bronx, Walker travels away from her safe, suburban neighborhood for the courser, Latino population down the street. Both Walker and her best friend, Melissa, have relationships with Dominicans. Often, after school, the group of older adolescents does drugs and experiment with new drugs on the streets. One day, they try a new pill from their dealer, and Walker, as the youngest in the group, suffers a scary trip. Her boyfriend, Ray, comes to rescue her and gets very angry with the rest of the group. He says nothing more to Walker, but soon after, the dealer turns up dead.

Walker continues to feel more at home in the Spanish Bronx, though. She feels her "mulatto" background is more accepted in this population than either the Black or the White world. One day, while babysitting for...