Easy Time (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Jack López
- First Published: 1993
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: The late twentieth century
- Setting: Near the Colonia, perhaps Northern California
- Principal Characters: Tony, Alex, Sylvia, Jimmy, His grandmother, His mother
- Genres: Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Prisons, Crime or criminals, Violence, Theft, Heroes or heroism, Latinos, Rejection
- Locales: California
The Story
Tony, who is about to serve thirty days—easy time—for auto theft, meets with his uncle, Alex, who is on probation. Concerned about Tony's first stay behind bars, Alex wants to give him a quick lesson in fighting. He soon grows impatient with Tony's lack of fighting skills, however, and exclaims: “Didn’t your old man teach you nothing?” Tony remembers how his father once tried to get his brother Jimmy and him to spar. They did not show enough aggression, so their impatient father took Tony's gloves, put them on, and beat Jimmy himself. Jimmy got a nosebleed...
[The entire page is 1528 words long]
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