The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian | Chapter 16 Summary

Junior is enchanted by Penelope's beauty.  He watches her play volleyball, noticing the whiteness of her skin and the outline of her white bra and white panties under her uniform, and is mesmerized by the way she tracks the ball with her blue eyes and twists and turns when she serves.  Junior does not know how to deal with what he is feeling.

Even though he suspects Rowdy still hates him, Junior emails his former friend, telling him that he is in love with a white girl, and asking him what to do.  Rowdy writes back immediately, saying that he is "sick of Indian guys who treat white women like bowling trophies", and he tells Junior to "get a life".  This is not what Junior wants to hear, so he decides to ask Gordy what he thinks about the matter.

Junior tells Gordy, "I'm an Indian boy...how can I get a white girl to love me?', and Gordy, in typically predictable fashion, says he will do some research on the subject.  He comes back with an article which points out that when "over two hundred Mexican girls...disappeared" one time, nobody much cared, but that "people care more about beautiful white girls than they do about everybody else on the planet".  Gordy concludes that the attraction Junior feels for Penelope means he's just as racist as everybody else.

Junior is stunned.  It appears to him that "Gordy the bookworm" is going to be every bit as tough on him as Rowdy.