I hurried down the stairs, my words still ringing in the hall: "He killed your brother!" Maria clambered after me, shouting, "Chino! Chino, why do you lie to me? It was a fair fight!"

"No, Maria, it wasn't," I said to her silently. "We all had weapons. We all were ready to kill. But were we ready to kill? No. None of us expected 'Nardo and Riff to die. None of us did, least of all Tony."

I fingered the hand pistol in my pocket as I burst out the door. Above me, in the apartment building, people were gasping: "¡Bernardo, muerte!" And I heard Maria shout: "No!"

I leaned against the building when I reached the outdoors, catching my breath. Now I had to find Tony. I had to avenge Bernardo's death.

Once I had caught my breath, I quickly went to the usual meeting place after a rumble with the Jets: the river. There, many of the gang who had been in the rumble tonight was already gathered.

"Chino!"

Pepe came up to me, concerned with my lateness. "Where have you been?" he asked in Spanish

I said abruptly: "Yo conté Maria que el combate. I told Maria about the rumble." There was a moment or two of uneasy silence.

Pepe said, "Chino, the cops are crawling all over the highway. I think they got wise to us."

I took out the hand pistol. "Well," I said, "we get wise to them. And I'll be hunting that zorrilla of a Polack down with this."

"Chino, no. Not tonight," another member of the Sharks, Jorge, protested. "There are too many risks."

I turned on him. "What have you learned about America?" I shouted. Jorge shrank back. "You've been here what, three, four months? And who was the first to jump you when you finally got here? Riff! Riff, Diesel, and Action, that's who!"

"But, Chino, the cops already know that Riff and 'Nardo are dead. Who'll be next?" Pepe asked.

I glanced at him, fingering the pistol again. "We'll find out soon enough."

The streets were full of cops, like Jorge had said. But what for? To me, it had seemed that it was obvious who had killed whom: Nardo and Riff had had a fight, and had killed each other in the process. Part of it was true. Part of it wasn't.

But I wasn't lettingthat zorrillaget away with killing my best friend.

I shook the thought out of my head with an angry movement, then stopped, listening. A pattering of running feet was nearby, and I looked around the edge of a building. Ducking into the shadows, my heart was pounding so hard that I was sure Anybodys could hear it as she ran past. It was a miracle that I was kept hidden. And I felt for the hand gun, which I had jammed in my pocket some time ago, but had forgotten was there. It was still in my pocket. I took it out, and made sure it was ready, then slipped into the shadows by the group of Jets.

"What if the Sharks ask where Tony is?" Anybodys said.

Diesel stared at her, as if he was trying to read her mind. "You know something?" he finally asked.

After a lengthy discussion, which had me and the gun in it, the Jets split up. "Hey, what about me?" Anybodys cried.

"You?" Diesel said. "You run in and out of the shadows. Maybe Tony's in one of them."

Tony was yelling. "Chino! Come and get me too, Chino!"

Why was he yelling?

Anybodys came out of Doc's store. "Tony! What are you doing?"

"You're a girl! Be like a girl and beat it!" Tony yelled.

I hurried toward him. So be it. If he wanted me to "come and get him too," then I would. I already knew about the lie Anita told the Jets. I'd make it so that Tony wished he'd never met Maria in the first place last night at the dance.

The gun fired. Was it really my hand that had pulled the trigger? And then everyone was in the playground next to Doc's store: Anybodys, Maria, Tony, and the Jets, and me, and the Sharks. I couldn't believe I had pulled the trigger- and then Detective Shrank and Officer Krumpke showed up. My world was pulled upside down.

Wilwarin Breila