Baseball in April and Other Stories

“Alfonso took off as fast as he could on his bike, jumped the curb, and, cool as he could be, raced away with his hands stuffed in his pockets. But when he looked back over his shoulder, the wind raking through his butch, Sandra wasn’t even looking. She was already on her lawn, heading for the porch.”

After Alfonso and Sandra agree to ride bikes together on Monday, the boy rides off jauntily, assuming that Sandra is watching his every move. His assumption reflects the self-centered (and highly self-conscious) tendencies of adolescents whose insecurities cause them to believe that the world’s focus is always on them. This passage establishes Alfonso’s obsession with his appearance and his intense desire to look “cool,” which hint at his anxious need to belong and be liked.

“Whenever he ran over a pothole, which was often, she screamed with delight, and once, when it looked like they were going to crash, she placed her hand over his, and it felt like love.”

While riding a bike with Sandra on board, Alfonso’s giddy assumption that they are in love reflects his youthful exuberance and innocent outlook on romance. The childish nature of his perspective is further emphasized by his recent conviction that that she would reject him outright for failing to bring her a bike of her own to ride. This wild swing of emotions exemplifies the volatile emotional landscape of a teenager, fueling the collection’s focus on The Challenges of the Coming-of-Age Journey.

“When they arrived, they leaped from the pickup and stood by the coach, who waved to the other coach as he hoisted his duffel bag onto his shoulder. Jesse scanned the other team: most were Mexican like his team, but they had a few blacks.”

When Jesse and his team arrive for their first game, they jump out of the back of their coach’s pickup truck, and it is clear that no parents are present and that Manuel’s goodwill is the only way the kids can get to the game.