Summary

“An Encounter”

This first chapter opens with two boys bullying Eddy. The tall redheaded boy spits into his face, and Eddy is too afraid to wipe it away. Eddy is 10 years old and new to the middle school, though he is accustomed to seeing violence at home and in his community. The two bullies begin kicking him in the stomach; his face turns blue and his body shakes. He can smell the bullies’ bad breath, and thinks about how no one brushes their teeth in the village. In the hallways he is insulted: “Faggot, fag, fairy, cocksucker, punk, pansy, sissy, wimp, girly boy, pussy, bitch, homo, fruit, poof, queer, or homosexual, gayboy” (9).

“My Father”

Eddy’s father’s father drank heavily and, when drunk, would beat his wife, Eddy’s grandmother. When Eddy’s father was five years old...