The Baseball Glove
- When the book opens, though we don't even know our main man's name yet, we're already hearing about his brother Bernardo (a.k.a. Nardo). And apparently this guy knows how to go through jobs like whoa.
- Nardo has been fired a few times, which stinks, but getting fired stung the worst when Nardo lost his job at the Bonneville Lakes Golf and Catering Service. He was a busboy with a taste for danger, so when his coworker Randy dared Nardo to get a raffle ticket and dance with a guest at the party they were catering, Nardo hopped to it.
- Sure, he's a pretty great dancer, but when his boss catches him, Nardo's job is over. The good news for us is that in the midst of this story, we learn our narrator's name: Manny.
- Since Nardo is out of work, it's time to find a new job. But here's the thing: He doesn't want to work anymore. At all. Ever again.
- Manny gives us the scoop on his family members based on their attitudes toward work.
- Nardo thinks work is the worst, and picking crops is at the bottom of his list because it's hot as can be in the desert—even Mom's shaming and Dad's yelling can't get Nardo off his bum. Instead, he'd rather focus on lifting weights.
- As for Magda, Manny's sister, she works cleaning laundry all day, which sounds pretty exhausting.
- Manny's dad isn't exactly the hardest worker around. He's lost jobs because of his drinking and now he's completely out of work, which is a big bummer.
- When it comes to Manny, he tells us he's a hard worker. He figures it's in his blood because his grandpa was a pretty busy, hardworking bloke; Manny also believes that people assume he'll spend his days working hard because he's Mexican.
- For a little while Manny had a job selling fruit with his uncle and cousins, but then his uncle got injured, so now he's on the hunt for a job because he wants to buy a new baseball mitt. This means he's itching to go pick chili peppers in the fields, and he wants Nardo to join in.
- Manny and Nardo show up at the chili fields, but the other workers have been picking crops since the sun came up, so these guys are a little late to the party. The foreman lets them pick peppers on a tiny dying row, and Manny and Nardo jump on the chance to make some dough.
- After a few hours of picking, Nardo trades his peppers in for some cash to buy a soda.
- Looking around the fields, Nardo and Manny know that there are some seriously hard workers out there. But all this hard work gets interrupted when immigration vans drive up. Most of the workers start running, even one old guy who doesn't need to try to escape, and pretty soon, the immigration officers catch up and take the workers away. Bummer.
- So now there are a bunch of chili-filled sacks just waiting to be claimed by the workers who are left… Nardo grabs a huge sack that would've taken him and Manny days to fill. Yes, it's shady business, but Nardo's feeling pretty lucky, and now Manny gets to buy his baseball glove, too.