The Pool Party by Gary Soto Read Free Book Online Page A

“And just a couple of days ago, me and Alex got lost on the inner tube.”
    “Really?” Tiffany asked. Her eyebrows lifted in interest.
    “You ever been to Francher’s Creek?”
    “No,” Tiffany sighed. “My parents usually take us to Hawaii.” She splashed water on her thighs.
    “Me and Alex were floating on the inner tube there, and we drifted so far we went all the way to Mendota.”
    “That far?”
    “Yeah, and we got in trouble because my dad had to come and get us.”
    “How exciting! Interesting things seem to happen to you, Rudy.”
    Rudy felt he was running out of things to say. What could he tell her next? he wondered. Without much thought, he plunged into the water. The inner tube lost its center of balance, and Tiffany toppled over. Underwater, they looked at each other.They stared and laughed, bubbles large as Ping-Pong balls rising from their open mouths. They rose to the surface laughing. Rudy sneezed because water had gotten up his nose.
    “I’m getting out,” Tiffany said.
    “I’m going to swim for a while,” Rudy said. He paddled toward the deep end of the pool. He climbed out of the pool, took a deep breath, and jumped in with a splash. He wanted to see how long he could stay underwater. He counted on his fingers, from left hand to right, back and forth, until he couldn’t stand it any longer. He came up, gasping for air. He had stayed under for only fifty-four seconds.
    Rudy swam over to a boy who was sitting in a lounge chair, rubbing lotion from a squeeze bottle. Curiously, Rudy watched the boy, then asked, “What are you putting on?”
    “A sunscreen, so I don’t get dark,” he answered. His skin was glistening.
    “But you’re already dark,” Rudy said. Hecould see that the boy was Mexican-American. Rudy figured that he was ashamed of the color of his skin, and Rudy was surprised that the boy felt that way.
    The boy sat up, shocked. “I beg your pardon!”
    Sensing that he had said the wrong thing, Rudy lowered his head into the water and swam to the opposite side of the pool. He got out, toweled off, and joined Tiffany and her mother.
    “Tiffany has told me so much about you,” her mother said.
    “Really? Did she ever tell you I got a home run off Alonso Rodriguez?” Rudy asked. He had started putting food on his plate.
    “No, she didn’t,” her mother said, a twinkle in her eye. She dipped a cookie into a sweet-looking concoction, savoring the taste. “Oh, I love what those caterers do with their ambrosia.”
    Rudy looked at the food on the table. To him, everything was so small—the smalltriangles of cheeses, the olives, the sausages, the crackers, and the plates of vegetables. He picked up a tiny cob of corn.
    “It’s no bigger than my pinkie,” Rudy said. “How did they do that?”
    “You mean, grow it?” Tiffany asked.
    “Yeah. I’m going to tell my mom. She won’t believe me.”
    “I don’t know,” Tiffany said. “But they’re cute, don’t you think?”
    “Cute?” Rudy wondered. “Yeah, they’re kind of cute, all right.” He turned the corn cob over in his hands and was going to put it in his mouth like a cigar, letting it dangle from his lips. But he knew better. Instead, he nibbled it and remarked, “It’s a swell day for a swell pool party.”
    Tiffany’s mother was called away. Rudy and Tiffany went to the gazebo, where a harpist was playing. He had never been up close to a harp, and now he was tapping his bare foot to the music. When she finished playing, he put down his plate of food and applauded. He asked, “Do you know ‘Louie Louie’?”

    The harpist shook her head.
    “Do you know ‘96 Tears’?”
    Again the harpist shook her head.
    “How ’bout ‘Woolly-Bully’?”
    When the harpist shook her head a third time, Rudy whispered to Tiffany, “I guess she must be a beginner.”
    Rudy swam all afternoon and was one of the last to leave the party. His eyes were red from the chlorine. His inner tube was almost flat