Heat

Michael’s father, the narrator reveals, came from a long line of men who had “died young” (35) of heart attacks. Although Papi claimed that he will “not only die an old man, he would die in America,” he is only “half right” (35). His “secret” (35), which is only shared with Mrs. Cora and Carlos later discovers, comes out in Chapter 5.

One night, as Papi drove his “gypsy cab” (35) to deliver a female passenger, he discovered a man, an ex-boyfriend, waiting for her. Even though he explained to Mrs. Cora later that “the rule is that once they are out of the car, they are no longer your responsibility” (36), he operated under a different rule. Papi intervened and fought the man, but “he felt something grab in his chest” (36).

He scared the ex-boyfriend away, told the woman to call the police, and drove away as soon as possible. Papi “had always warned his sons, you never want to spend too much time talking to the police” (36). He arrives home and visits Mrs. Cora, who he urges to call a priest instead of a doctor, for a priest will “keep [his] secret” (37). But he dies before the priest arrives, urging Mrs. Cora to tell everyone that he is missing, not dead, so that the Family Court will not take or separate his sons.

The priest, Mrs. Cora, and the boys travel to Queens for a small, private funeral. Mrs. Cora, though she would like to, cannot adopt the boys; their mother, who had died very young, had sisters in Cuba, but there was no way to contact them. Carlos goes looking for work, hoping “to find a way to get by until [he turns] eighteen” (38). In this way, their “family of three had become, in Michael Arroyo’s young mind, an army of two” (39).

A few days later, Michael plans to meet up with Manny after his doctor’s appointment. Because he needs to wait for Manny, who operates on his own timing, “Manny Standard Time” (40), Michael stops at Yankee Stadium before he heads to the Macomb Fields. He circles the stadium and looks for his hero, El Grande, but he only sees Sazaki, another pitcher, and a few other players.

When Manny arrives, complaining of pain in his arm from a shot, the boys joke around as they take their places on the mound and behind home plate. Michael reflects on the face that Manny “would do anything for Michael”—he would catch his pitches for as long as Michael wanted and “wouldn’t even think about stopping until Michael did” (42). Manny, it turns out, also knows about Michael’s father, but he avoids the topic.

As they throw together, Manny notices their “audience”—the girl from the basketball courts watches them from “out beyond the center-field fence” (43). He throws the ball out to her and waits as she walks around the fence, slowly, “like she [has] all the time in the world” (44). She throws the ball back to him, “on the fly” (44).

Manny and Michael discuss the girl’s amazing arm while he throws it back to her. Manny says how  she is "just a girl […] with Superboy’s arm” (45). She catches it, casually, with a glove she has on her hand. They continue to throw back and forth, and Michael starts to notice her “beautiful motion […] as if it wasn’t taking any effort at all to throw” (45). “She definitely does not throw like a girl,” he thinks, and he says to Manny: “We gotta meet her” (45). They argue over who should speak to her first, and then eventually walk toward her. This time, she does not run away.