Muchacho_ A Novel - Johnson, Louanne

For Corey, who never meant to kick that teacher and for all the “secret readers ” who are sitting in school keeping their intelligence to themselves CHAPTER 1 BEECHER AT THE LIBRARY I SEEN M ISS B EECHER TODAY AT THE LIBRARY CHECKING OUT A old lady’s book. She had her head tipped down so I couldn’t see her face real good but I knew it was Beecher on account of her hair is the exact same color as a car I stole once. Bronze metallic. Beecher doesn’t look like a regular librarian but at least she didn’t look like she was falling off a cliff the way she did most of the time back when she was trying to be a teacher. I didn’t go all the way inside the library, just stood in the doorway waiting for Letty and Juanito to finish listening to the story lady, but Juanito saw me and he yelled, “Eddie!” I quick looked at Beecher to see if she heard Juanito holler my name because if Beecher looked at me, then I would nod, maybe say, “Hey, how’s it going.” But she was busy helping another old lady find her library card so I ducked out. First time I saw Beecher, I thought, Oh great, another one of those Peace Corps people with their organic shoes an......