Study Guide

Autobiography of My Dead Brother Chapter 9

By Walter Dean Myers

Chapter 9

Jesse says he's pretty close with his parents, but even so, he doesn't know how to tell them about the whole Rise situation.
Instead he turns to his drawings to try to figure things out. He draws a comic with a character, Spodi Roti, who represents Jesse—it's about how Spodi Roti's mom can't relate to the hard stuff going on in Spodi's life.
Then he heads over to C.J.'s. It's time for the Cuban band's debut.
Benny's there with the band's uniforms (which consist of frilly green blouses) ready to go. Jesse's given a conga to play.
The band arrives at the birthday party. The house is super fancy, and Jesse's starting to worry about the fact that he has no experience playing the conga.
Benny introduces the band as the Caballeros. That's Spanish for "gentlemen," in case you were wondering.
The band is sounding a little wobbly until C.J. starts playing the piano. After that, everything's fine, and they easily play for a few hours.
On the way home, C.J. mentions how much he enjoyed playing the baby grand piano—the church piano is sort of lackluster.
C.J. talks about how his mom wants him to go to college but all C.J. really wants to do is make music.
Jesse observes that they're going to grow up to be just like their parents, but C.J. says he doesn't plan to have kids.
They walk the rest of the way home. C.J. seems sort of preoccupied, but Jesse's feeling great after their successful gig.