"She said it because of my toe."
"I said it because of your toe! For a year I said it because of your toe." She scraped some more, furiously. "We'll go to the Big 5 tonight."
"Tía, they're like a hundred and twenty dollars."
"So they're a hundred and twenty dollars."
"That's a whole day."
"That's a whole morning," she corrected. "A whole day is more." She set the pumice down. "Tavo. Mijo. I didn't get Ximo to do the mornings so you could go play in shoes that hurt you. That's not why. You understand?"
He understood. He nodded.
"After tryouts," he said.
"You said that already."
"I mean it this time. Thursday. After the list."
She looked at him for a long moment, the pumice in her hand dripping gray water on the floor.
"Thursday," she said. "And if you're not on the list we go anyway, and you buy them anyway, and you go to that park anyway every morning with your skinny friend. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay good," she said, and went back to scraping.