Tangerine

Paul has the science project group over to his house, which, he writes, “was a big deal for me” (197). All is going well until Paul hears Arthur’s car, and he worries about what Erik and Arthur will do or say while the group is at the house. Erik begins taunting them, aiming his barbed remarks at Tino in particular: “I think it’s great that these farm-labor kids get to spend a day away from the fields” (198). When Tino responds by teasing Erik about his pratfall on the field, Erik strikes him across the face so hard it knocks him down.

While Erik struggles to regain control over his anger, Paul sees a strange look on his face: “It was not hatred, or even anger. It was more like sorrow. Or fear” (199). Paul suspects his Dad has seen what Erik did, but he refuses to intervene. Afterwards, Tino won’t even speak to Paul, and he leaves quickly with the others. Paul is “sick to my soul,” wondering what he should have or could have done (200).

Paul struggles over the incident with Erik, angry with himself for not feeling comfortable or brave enough to tell his parents. His Mom picks him up after school. Soccer season is over, so he accompanies her on her afternoon errands. She wants to stop by their storage unit. She has forgotten her key, but she remembers that Erik has one, which strikes Paul as strange. During the conversation, Mom asks if Paul needs to tell her something about Erik, but he doesn’t, feeling as if she wouldn’t believe him if he did. She mentions that she has a meeting at the high school because Erik’s grades are low, and she blames it on football season. Paul reminds her that he is also a “champion athlete” (203), but his grades have not suffered.

While Mom goes in to discuss Erik’s schoolwork with the principal, Paul walks over to where Erik and his team are practicing. Surprised, he sees Luis’s pickup truck pull up, then he watches as Luis approaches Erik and Arthur. He confronts Erik about hitting his younger brother, intimating that Erik is a coward: “You would smack a little kid in the face, right? Why don’t you come over here and try to smack me?” (205). The confrontation is quickly over when Arthur steps up to Luis and blindsides him with a blackjack (a leather-covered, stick-like weapon) to the temple. Erik explains that “Arthur takes care of all my light work for me” (205). Again, Paul is both horrified and terrified, unsure of what to do. He remains hidden, watching Luis return to his truck until Mom calls him back to the car.

Paul recounts what occurred the day before. Tangerine is in the national news again, this time for sporting record cold temperatures, and he notices a lot of kids are absent from class. Henry D. explains that the kids from farming families are excused from class during extreme weather to help on the farm. Extremely cold temperatures can destroy an entire grove or orchard. Paul suggests that they, too, go out to the Cruz family farm to help.

It’s grueling work trying to set up smudge pots and build fires or breaks to keep the trees warm. Paul lets Mom know that he will be staying the night at a friend’s house, and he works alongside the Cruz family and others all through the night. By the end, he is both “weary to the core of my body” and nearly frostbitten (219). It looks as if most of the trees—especially Luis’s special Golden Dawn hybrid—will survive.

Paul decides to tell Luis that he saw Arthur Bauer attack him the other day at the high school, warning him about how dangerous he and Erik are. Luis surprises him by telling him he shouldn’t be afraid of such “punks” (222). Luis notes that, come Monday, Erik and Arthur will face retribution. Paul is impressed but still conflicted: “How could I be so totally afraid, and Luis be not the slightest bit afraid, of the exact same thing? Which one of us saw it wrong?” (223). Mom comes to pick Paul up, none the wiser of what he accomplished during the night.

In his exhaustion, Paul sleeps through Thanksgiving. For some reason, nobody in the family wakes him up for dinner. As he’s eating a leftover turkey sandwich, Dad comes in with the newspaper, brooding about the latest football game. He suggests that the team is conspiring against Erik, making “wild” snaps that prevent him from scoring (225). In the same paper, there is an article, accompanied by a photo, about the War Eagles’ championship season. When Paul starts to cut the picture out, Dad asks him if he was on the team. Both Paul and Mom realize that Dad doesn’t even know what position Paul plays because he’s so wrapped up in the “Erik Fisher Football Dream”. When Dad defends himself by suggesting that this senior season is so crucial to Erik’s future prospects, Mom “asked quietly, ‘What if Erik has no future in football?’” (227). Paul wonders what his Mom might have discovered about Erik.

A neighbor comes by to tell the family that someone has vandalized the wall outside their property, spray painting “Seagulls Suck” across it (229). When Paul goes out to look at it, another memory comes rushing in. This one is so powerful it renders him unconscious, and Dad finds him in the yard. He tells his parents that he is okay, but “[t]he whole truth is—I feel very weird. But I can’t say why. I can’t remember why. Not yet” (230).

Paul is disappointed to see Erik come home from school as usual. Apparently, whatever Luis had planned in order to enact revenge went awry—or, Paul hopes, was simply postponed. Paul checks out the football file on Dad’s computer again, observing that he has deleted the second-tier schools. Dad is counting on Erik’s admission to the best football schools in the country.

At another Homeowners’ Association meeting, Paul finally speaks up about the missing koi. He posits that the osprey are swooping down and snatching them from the pond. While the adults aren’t quite convinced, they admit that this could be a likely scenario. They ask Paul whether he knows anything about the neighborhood robberies, but he does not. They discuss the muck fire, and someone suggests that the residents sue the county if something isn’t done about it. This discombobulates Dad, who, after all, heads up the civil engineering department.

Paul’s diary begins: “Luis Cruz is dead” (236). He is stunned and saddened by the news, wondering how it could have happened. Henry D. informs him that the doctors think he was hit on the head—probably while working in the groves during the freeze—which formed a blood clot that caused an aneurysm. Paul knows the truth: It must have been the blow from Arthur’s blackjack that caused the fatal injury. After some online research, he is sure of it. While mortified by his secret knowledge, he is unsure of what to do. He will, at least, attend the funeral.

Paul stays home from school and receives a phone call from Theresa Cruz, warning him not to come to the funeral. Paul realizes that the family must know what actually happened to Luis. He muses on the fact that—unlike the Fisher family—the families he knows from Tangerine Middle tell each other the truth, prizing loyalty and honesty above all else. He walks over to the pond, thinking about what he should do, and he tells a young kid he encounters not to believe every story his parents tell him.

Paul is home alone, forgoing the funeral out of respect for the Cruz family. He feels a powerful need to pay respects to Luis in some way. He puts on a suit, walks into the backyard, and pulls up the sod until he reaches the dirt below: “This was the dirt that we lived on. The dirt of the tangerine grove that we burned, and buried, and plowed under, and coated with sand, and landscaped over. Here it was” (244). He sobs into the soil, thinking, “Luis is a part of me now” (245).