foolishness

So I wanted to make sure the brand of beer I attributed to Candelario was the right one. And I ended up at this very fun website, all in Spanish and flash and stuff: Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma.

best intentions and all that (959 words)

Okay, so it turns out Candelario has figured out that our guy has had a deprived life, and is introducing him to the cultured life as he knows it -- action movies, a gran baile. This is a little awkward. Hell, they might as well go to the Steinbeck Museum for a Christmas program, as long as they're in Salinas for the winter. That's not a bad idea, I'll have to do a little research there.

And then -- this chapter has to end with the spring, and Candelario's wish for a truck, and our guy wanting to run away after the wish but Candelario's got other ideas -- "Come with me, we're going to move to Watson, get jobs in Aptos, there's nothing here."

Which means I get to end the book in my own home county. It's scary how close I am to the end, and how short the book is turning out to be. (I'm never satisfied. I was all along worried how long the Chuy book was, and a lot less actually happened in that one compared to this one. I think it's a lot shorter than the Chuy book because my guy has a lot less going on, intellectually and emotionally, to begin with, and his relationships with people are truncated in various ways)

Chapter 21 is Candelario meeting Araceli, and that relationship growing while our guy watches and wonders. Chapter 22 is Araceli confronting our guy ("Are you a ghost? A spirit? What are you?" -- "What does that mean -- the user interface for the universal conduit?" -- "You better meet my Tia Citlali.") Oh dog, it looks like the book will come in under 25 chapters at 7 pages per chapter average -- 175 pages.

But it's not YA. ( a more accomplished writer could have forced it into being YA, though)