We Were Here

Rondell relates a tale about a foster mother who kept an un-neutered cat as a pet. Overcome with desire for a passing female cat one day, the male cat jumped through the screen of the sixth floor apartment window to find the female cat. The animal was too injured to recuperate and the vet had to euthanize him. Rondell relates that the group held “a little funeral” (155) for the cat; however, he knows the animal was denied entrance to heaven because “the little guy committed suicide” (156).

Miguel recalls that he and his brother took a day trip to the beach in their mother’s car following their father’s death. Diego picks a spot closest to a group of pretty girls, and postures for their benefit while playing football with his brother. He dives in the water, encouraging Miguel to do so as well, in order to impress the group; however, they become fearful due to their inability to swim. Convinced that they are near drowning, they motion to the lifeguard. Upon seeing them, she stands up and indicates that they are in waist deep water on a sandbar and should merely walk back to the shore, yelling “No! Just stand up! Just stand! Up!” (159). The pair left the beach immediately afterwards.

Mong remains silent through the story. They ultimately buy three bus tickets to Los Angeles, in order to travel as far south as possible; Mong and Rondell fall asleep immediately upon sitting in their seats. Miguel appears to experience a panic attack and feels “incredibly alone and lost on the bus” (160); he attempts to comfort himself with the idea that there has “gotta be a sandbar” (161), metaphorically. He opens his journal and writes.

Rondell awakens during the bus ride and asks Miguel whether God can see them on the bus: “I wanna be see’s by him […] just like other people” (162). He expresses the hope that God hasn’t lost track of him, and wants to find out if dogs and cats are allowed entry to heaven. Miguel thinks that God should be democratic about watching humans, even those who have been “locked up.”

Upon exiting the bus in Santa Monica, the boys find themselves in an affluent community. They find cheap burritos to eat and, discarding their group home clothes, buy new shirts, pants, and sneakers.

They stop to watch a basketball game in Venice Beach, and a player named “Peanut Butter” invites them to join. The local players are clearly excellent, but they need more bodies to conduct a game. Miguel, who had previously considered himself to be a good player, is unable to defend against the local player whom he is assigned to guard. Everyone is very surprised when Rondell decides to exhibit his true skill at the game.

The game progresses; however, Mong collapses after running for too long. Miguel ruminates about what might occur if Mong were to die while the group is traveling to Mexico. When the other boy catches his breath and leaves the game, Rondell demonstrates his full array of basketball skills after the opposing team starts referring to him as “Rondell Mutumbo” (166). Miguel recalls reading that Rondell played AAU ball and describes him as a basketball “valedictorian” (168). Rondell gives Miguel the ball and allows him to shoot the winning lay-up. The atmosphere is celebratory until Rondell announces that he doesn’t play ball anywhere due to the fact that he and his companions are group home residents who “just broke out two nights ago” (169).

Upon checking his duffel bag, Miguel realizes that the petty cash envelope is missing and two guys “were sneaking out of the gym” (170). The trio pursues them and a fistfight ensues. Rondell protects Miguel when he is hit and thrown to the ground; however, Mong impresses the group by exhibiting his martial arts skills and actually biting one of the thieves on the face. Subsequently, Mong exhibits an almost unnatural calm, smiling presence. Miguel retrieves the money and one of the players in the game offers them a ride to Malibu Beach, which is their next destination. Two police cruisers speed by en route to the scene of the fight.

The driver of the car, Dallas, drops the group off in the quiet beach town of Malibu. He advises Rondell that Mexico has professional basketball teams that would pay him to play, and encourages him to pursue this option.

The boys buy food supplies and wood to make a campfire on the beach. Rondell, who is judged the oldest-looking group member due to his size, is sent to a liquor store to buy beer and whiskey. Mong leads his friends down the beach to a large, blue house located directly on the water. He tells them that his father used to take him there on vacations as a child. Miguel notices a quietly-affectionate older couple walking on the beach and wonders if he should try calling his mother and Jaden the next day, which he feels will be his last day in the US.

The group enjoys a campfire and dinner. Mong eats and drinks, which is unusual for him now. Rondell describes the feeling that he gets playing basketball, which is that it “flows” (178). Miguel wonders if he himself has ever experienced this feeling. Rondell falls asleep, and Mong beckons Miguel to accompany him to the shoreline. Miguel is apprehensive as he wonders about the impact of alcohol upon Mong’s unpredictable personality.

Mong advises Miguel that he “just felt like talking” (179). The conversation comes to encompass the amount of the earth’s surface covered by oceans to Mong’s philosophical observation that the ocean gave him perspective as to “just how small we are” (179). He further notes that he is quite sick and in need of a kidney transplant but “far down on the list” (181).

When Miguel asks how Mong developed such expertise in fighting, the other boy answers that it’s because he has no fear of injury since “I don’t care what happens to me” (181). Miguel shares this sense of futility and suspects that all group home residents feel the same. Mong shares the fact that he has been angry since his diagnosis and had been in brawls ever since, but does not want to fight any more. Moved by curiosity, Miguel asks why Mong spat at him upon his arrival to the residence; Mong answers that it was “[t]o find out who you are” (183). Perceptively, Mong notes that Miguel is a “normal kid” who made an error and is “trying not to forgive yourself” (183). He goes on to reveal that the brown tooth he wears around his neck is merely a found object that he wears for good luck, and that luck wasn’t defined merely by lifetime events, but how people “figure out what it means” (185). Miguel, mentally reviewing the tragic events that have occurred in Mong’s life, thinks that good fortune has never been involved; however, he comes to understand Mong’s philosophical perception of the same.

Mong asks Miguel his opinion of Mei-li’s tragic love story, which Miguel knows is the history of Mong’s parents. Mong wonders if this was actually “true love,” as his cousin thought. He talks about various types of love, such as his love of the ocean. He expresses the sense that he is in love “with the whole world” at the present time: “Everything of the earth” (186). Both boys grow increasingly drunk as the evening progresses, and are much freer in this conversation than they have been in the past. Miguel notices that Mong has started to weep silently, prior to vomiting profusely.

Finally, Mong reveals that he has a sense of prescience, or the ability to see the future: “Sometimes I think I’ve known every single thing that was going to happen to me. For as long as I can remember” (188). He tells Miguel that he has always known that they would be “best friends” before going on separate paths. Miguel leaves to go to sleep and Mong stays in place to gaze at the ocean. As he falls asleep, Miguel thinks that “[i]t didn’t seem right for someone to get shot by their own dad, get bad kidneys, and then that’s it” (189).

Miguel awakens with a “bad feeling” (190). He sees Mong at the ocean’s edge, wearing only jeans and stepping into the water. He calls out to Mong and asks what he’s doing. Mong, looking pale and sick, responds that he’s swimming. Rondell appears and reminds Mong that his jeans will get wet; however, Mong, entranced, merely steps into the water. Miguel experiences a sense of loss of control and watches as Mong swims further and further out into the water. Rondell notes that he’s “goin’ out too far” (192). Both boys watch helplessly as Mong’s head disappears beneath the waves. They wait for an hour and pack to leave, at which point Miguel realizes that Mong’s brown tooth is hanging on a string around Miguel’s own neck. The remaining two boys walk for hours without talking, and then Miguel remembers that he should explain Mong’s suicide to Rondell. However, when he starts to do so, he sees that Rondell is sobbing and that “[h]e understood” (194). Miguel feels like a Marine headed to combat and tries to keep marching without thinking.