The Living

Shy wakes to find his roommate, Rodney, standing over his bed. Rodney is a six-foot-four offensive lineman who works as an assistant to the head chef; Shy describes him as “an enthusiastic hugger who didn’t understand his own strength” (13). Today is Rodney’s 19th birthday, and he and Shy make their way to the crew level of the ship for a celebration. Shy is momentarily distracted by “plenty of fresh female faces to scope out—Shy’s favorite pastime” (16), but his friend Carmen quickly becomes the focus of his attention. Carmen is a beautiful 18-year-old Mexican American woman whom Shy is unable to look away from, despite the fact that he knows she has a fiancé waiting for her at home.

Shy remembers a basketball game he once attended with his family, where he won a $2,000 check for making a series of difficult shots. This memory is one of his happiest, but it also reminds him of the way he views his place in the world: “Because nothing like this was supposed to happen to some anonymous kid like him. He was just a dude from down by the border. Didn’t they know?” (17).