Chapter 9 Summary

One day, Richard comes home from football practice and is as usual disgusted by the squalor of his house. He finds his mother picking lice out of his little sister's hair and gets angry and calls a family meeting. His sisters start cleaning, since it is not the first time this has happened. One sister does not come when he calls for her, so he goes and hits her until she comes and helps. That night, they sit down as a family at supper again, and later Richard reads out loud to his parents for several hours. He somehow knows that this is the last time they will spend an evening together like this as a family.

When World War II begins, there are lots of soldiers in California and also lots of Mexican immigrants. Many of them form a group called the...