We Were Here

Flaca brings Miguel into a room to talk privately, and asks how his lip was cut; he responds that he and his brother were “probably messin’ around” (249). She mentions that she has two older brothers, and is closest with the one named Rene. While she speaks, Miguel realizes how beautiful Flaca is and thinks that Diego would approve of her.

Miguel leaves the room to check on Rondell. He is sitting on a couch listening to music with a group of college boys. Rondell refers to Miguel by the nickname of “Mexico,” and one of the white students asks whether having a pet name like that is characteristic of a gay couple. Further discussion is averted by another group member and Miguel leaves feeling that Rondell is safe, although perhaps drunk.

Miguel recalls advice that Diego once gave him about relating to girls, telling him that it’s better to be “chill” and think about other things in order to keep the girl interested. 

Miguel returns to Flaca and realizes that he is “buzzed” (253) and no longer nervous about being alone with her. She continues to flirt with him and asks what he’s thinking about, after which she kisses him. Suddenly, Miguel hears a loud crashing noise in the house that shakes the room, and he leaps up to check on Rondell.

Miguel enters the living room to see “five guys holding back a crazed Rondell” (256). One of them tells Miguel that Rondell had beaten the member of the group who had asked if having pet names was a gay trait. The victim had been beaten unconscious, and Rondell was unresponsive when Miguel called to him. Suddenly, a large young Mexican man who is a friend of the victim enters the room and tries to punch Rondell. Rondell responds by breaking his assailant’s nose; the other man crumples to the floor. Rondell continues beating him.

Miguel intervenes when another young man tries to hit Rondell with a broken bottle; Miguel is knocked unconscious and revives to see Rondell choking the fellow and screaming, “Nobody touch Mexico!” (258). Miguel slaps his friend on the back of the head until he releases his opponent’s throat. Girls scream; the furniture is covered with blood. Miguel grabs Rondell and they run from the house, followed by Flaca and her friends.

The group returns to the baseball field. Rondell has a blank, disassociated expression on his face. The girls comment upon Rondell’s continued beating of unconscious opponents and the severity of their injuries. One of Flaca’s friends compares the fight at the party to cockfighting.

Miguel looks at Rondell and thinks that “maybe [Rondell] was better off locked up” (261). Flaca says that she wants to say goodbye to Miguel privately in the other dugout, and that her friends will wait near the bleachers, where the boys’ duffels are hidden. It’s clear that the girls have noticed Rondell searching through his duffel bag, which had been hidden under the stands. Rondell is instructed to wait for Miguel on a bench; he tells Miguel he’s scared.

The pair walk through the park wordlessly for a while, until Miguel apologizes for Rondell’s behavior. Flaca says that Rondell was “scary.”

Miguel suddenly feels that he wants to share all the details of his personal story with Flaca, including parts that he “hadn’t even processed yet” (264). He explains that several months earlier, he had committed a life-altering offense and was sentenced to a group home as a result. He explains the history of his relationship with Rondell and Mong, as well as the theft of the petty cash, their escape, and Mong’s suicide. He notes his inability to actually cross the border into Mexico, as well as his family history there. Finally, he explains that he wants to make amends by paying the Lighthouse back for the stolen cash, and hopes that perhaps he’ll have future contact with his mother.

Flaca listens quietly, and Miguel fantasizes that they may someday marry. Flaca is stunned by his confession, saying that he seems “so different” than people in trouble. When she asks for details of his crime, he responds by kissing her. The pair make a pact to meet in the ballpark the following evening; Flaca says that she wants to spend the entire night with him there.

She leaves with her friends; the group all starts to run when they get to the hill. Miguel attributes this behavior to their concern about the fights at the party, and he returns to a sleeping Rondell in the dugout. Although he is overwhelmed by thoughts of Flaca and concerns over his future, Miguel feels that he “knew [he] was alive” (270).

The boys sleep through half of the next day. Miguel happily considers the fact that he now has a girlfriend. Later in the day, he tells Rondell that Rondell had scared the girls by fighting so violently, and that he must learn to gain better self-control. Miguel feels that he has become a counselor, like Jaden; however, he continues in his efforts with Rondell because he wants his friend to avoid prison, and “have a normal life, too” (271). Rondell tells Miguel that the boy he fought had called Miguel a “punk” and threatened to take Flaca away from him, so Rondell had knocked him down.

Miguel realizes that Rondell has been there for him more than anyone besides Diego.

Miguel makes preparations for spending an entire night away from Rondell. He takes money from his jeans pocket and gives the other boy enough cash to eat twice in the local coffee shop. Rondell rejoices in seeing his friend so pleased, and they agree that Rondell can return to the baseball dugout after 2:00 a.m. the following morning. Miguel bathes by climbing a fence to the community pool and washing with a bar of soap that he’s bought. He buys breath mints and a red flower for Flaca, and writes in his journal while waiting for her to arrive.

While awaiting Flaca, Miguel recalls a basketball game involving students, parents, and teachers that was attended by his father. All the other fathers were wearing shorts, but his father arrived attired in army fatigues and work boots. When a referee argued that black-soled shoes would mar the court floor, Miguel’s dad attributed his ruling to bigotry against Mexicans. The principal intervenes, and his dad is allowed to play. Miguel recalls his embarrassment about his father’s behavior, attire, and failure to adhere to rules regarding fouls. When another boy in the locker room asked Miguel if that was his father in the game, Miguel had said that his father was dead. After the game, he had seen his father spending time encouraging graduating seniors about the benefits of military service. 

Miguel recalls that his dad’s boots actually had damaged the wooden floor of the court, then wonders what it would have been like to have had a different father. Four months later, his father was killed. Miguel used to spend time going to the empty gym to stare at the scuff marks on the floor from his father’s boots.

Miguel has eaten all of his wintergreen breath mints and is very pleased with the results. He wonders if Flaca has spent time changing outfits and fixing her hair. 

In this section of the book, the author provides a glimpse into the thoughts of an increasingly distraught Miguel. Miguel initially wonders whether there was a mistake in the meeting location: “maybe she said for us to meet at the playground” (277). 

By 10:30pm, Miguel vows to leave the bleachers after he has finished reading the last thirty pages of Catcher in the Rye. 

Miguel’s 11:34pm journal entry notes his enjoyment of the book and his realization that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, had been addressing his therapist throughout the journal. Miguel thought the book was extraordinary and was impressed with Holden Caulfield’s love for his sister. He wonders about the meaning of the title, and supposes it is a metaphor that he doesn’t understand.

By 12:15am, Miguel realizes that he is the “watcher’over person” (279) of the park. Unlike Holden Caulfield, who tried to save innocent children, Miguel is trying to establish a sanctuary for “so called bad kids” (279). He would allow such kids a place to be quiet, or rest, or to talk to himself, Rondell, and one another. They would be allowed to go home when they decided the time was right. 

At 12:30am, Miguel spontaneously checks the petty cash envelope in his duffel, and finds that all of the money is missing. A note is scrawled on a Taco Bell receipt, signed by Flaca’s friend, Jules. It indicates that Rondell and Miguel “did [their] thing getting this money, and now we’re just doing ours by taking it for ourselves” (280). In a postscript, Jules adds that Flaca really had liked Miguel.  

Miguel is so shocked and afraid that he feels physically numb. He has exactly $12 left to provide for himself and Rondell–the change from the cash left in his pocket from the steak dinner after he bought breath mints, soap, and the flower for Flaca. He is so stunned that he literally eats the Taco Bell receipt on which the note was written, and wonders what Diego would have said to him about being duped by girls. After walking back to the store, he tries to call Jaden to ask the meaning of the book title, Catcher in the Rye; however, he can’t remember the phone number and hangs up. He loiters looking at porn magazines for a while until the clerk threatens him with a baseball bat and starts calling the police to have him removed from the store, at which point Miguel throws the magazine on the floor and walks out.

Miguel returns to the ballpark and re-reads sections of his book, trying to discern the meaning of the title. Unable to focus, his gaze drifts to graffiti on a wall that reads: “EVERYBODY IS NOBODY” (283). He feels a deep connection to the writer of the phrase. He can smell the flower that he bought for Flaca from a few feet away, and thinks that he “deserved every single thing that had ever happened to [him]” (283).

At 1:30am, Miguel observes Rondell walking across the field to sleep in their dugout. As per Miguel’s instructions, Rondell avoids looking inside the dugout, where he assumes Miguel is spending the evening with Flaca. Miguel is so touched by this that he actually weeps. Unable to sleep, he ponders his last conversation with Mong, who had told him that trivial things don’t matter. Miguel expounds upon this thought and believes that “[n]othing matters” (284).