Short Story Analysis: Roque

Out of the short stories from this week "Roque" was my favorite one. Erick's character reminded me a lot of Sonny's character in The Flowers. They both didn't talk much, especially to their mothers. Their was a lot of boyfriends of there mothers around that they didn't like and they both told their own stories. A reoccurring conflict in the story was always a man trying to come into his mothers life. These men would always lavish her with compliments and she would fall easily for them but that wouldn't last for long and then the next one would come around. Erick didn't like these men and said their life was just fine until a man started to change it all. Erick found himself in a bit of a pickle when he told his new friend Albert that his new dad was an engineer. But in reality that man dumped his mother and she soon met Roque. He wanted his friend to think he was going to have a rich dad so when Roque started to come around he told Albert that Roque was his uncle. That back fired on him when Albert saw Roque and Erick's mother together during a car ride. Because of that Erick pushed his friend away, saying that he didn't need someone like Albert who already had a whole family. In the beginning of this story I started to compare Roque to Cloyd but I didn't see a lot of similarities.
Erick knew that Roque cared for his mother and for him because he knew that Erick liked baseball. Even though baseball wasn't Roque's favorite sport he took him and his mother to a game. During this Dodger's baseball game Erick caught a home run ball from who was thought to be Pete Guerrero. This is where I think the crisis and the climatic moment happen in the story. As they are leaving the stadium the window of a bus opens where the team is loading up and a player, possibly Guerrero looked out and told Erick that he would have his ball signed by all the players. Erick tossed the ball to him and waited unsure if he would get the ball back or not. Finally the window opened again and the ball was tossed back to him signed by the players, most of them he didn't recognize but Erick did know a few names. The climax happens next when not only the ball came back from the bus but also a piece of paper. Erick was told by the player that it was for him mom. He read it and it was another one of those guys trying to change their lives. The note had a name, number and hotel room on it, also that this guy would like to get to know her better. He started to walk back to his mother and Roque and either threw the note or dropped it by the time he reached them and instead of telling her he said; "Look he said in a full voice. They all signed the ball." That was an interesting but great resolution to the story, because I'm not sure that he said anything to anyone through out the whole story and then at the end he gets up the courage to talk. He didn't want another man coming into their life to change things, his mother had Roque and they were happy.