Before they leave, Mami has him check the latches on every window in the apartment. The next day, a Saturday, Yunior and Mami go to the mall. Mami tries to convince Yunior to reach out to Beto, and he gets angry with her but stays to watch TV. She informs him that Beto is thinking about going to business school. Mami asks him if he found Beto, and he tells her that he did not look for him. They watch the Spanish news, where they learn that a baby has fallen from a seventh-story apartment but wasn't harmed. When he gets back from the pool, he sees that she is still awake, and he sits next to her on the couch so that they can watch TV together. He says that his mother has 'discovered the secret to silence' and moves around their apartment so quietly that sometimes he doesn't even realize she is there (94). He and Mami are living alone in an apartment. Yunior begins to reflect on his life at home. He sees the pool rules sign and remembers a moment from the past when Beto asked him what the word 'expectorating' means, but Yunior refused to tell him.

Yunior swims in the deep end for a while and then makes his way to the shallow end of the pool. Two kids swim past him in the pool and recognize him as the guy who sells them marijuana. When he gets there, he realizes that he is not the oldest person there, 'but it's close' (93). ( Pato is a Dominican slur for a gay man, generally used in a derogatory manner.) He decides to look for Beto, going to the community pool where they used to hang out as kids. Yunior reveals that they used to be friends before Beto went off to college. 'Drown' begins with Mami telling Yunior that his childhood friend, Beto, is back in town.

Ysrael junot diaz summary