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But Manolo was in no condition anye He was pure, distilled fury He swung the crowbar again, and this time the thick steel bar landed with a horrible crunch on Boots’s head

Boots stopped trying to stand

Manolo hit hi down Boots’s face, and Manolo hit hiain as the wo him!”

And he was

Manolo hit hi down into the jellied mass that was his tormentor’s head

I had no time to prepare or ward off the physical reaction that took hold ofme to bend over and vomit onto the pavement

How can I explain that reaction except to say that I had never before witnessed anything as violent before Sa I had seen up to thatIt had about it an air of stateliness, almost, of inevitability I was prepared

I had no preparation for the animal frenzy that had erupted before ain onto meat and bone And all of it had happened so very quickly that I had no time to shift my sympathies For at first I was happy that Manolo had prevailed Mere seconds passed from that emotion to the physical rejection of the brutality I saw following

I heard a siren I saw flashing lights

Manolo searched the ground for his keys, but his eyes were filled with tears and his s of pain and anger, regret and savage triuether

In the end he just leaned back against the car, panting, spent I heard the crowbar clatter to the ground I heard Sneakers whining and saying, “He broke ain

“Tell me, Mara: What do you see here?”

I was still wipingto focus Messenger’s cold-sounding question was hard at first even to comprehend But I understood that this was so to excel, even when the object of the ga I reject, I did my best to answer

“He defended himself Lost it Oh, my God, killed that boy” I took several deep breaths, tried vainly to slow the jackhammer insistence of my heart “Is that thehimself!”

“Manolo’s fate is for huency to determine His doom will be pronounced by a jury and a court”