Keeper

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death.

Paul Faustino, the most well-known soccer journalist in South America, begins an interview with El Gato (“The Cat”), the best goalkeeper in the world. He has just won the World Cup with his team. El Gato tells Faustino about growing up in a small village in an unnamed South American country. 

As a boy, El Gato lives with his parents, his little sister, and his grandma, Nana. He plays soccer every day with his friends, but he is never any good. The other children refer to him as La Cigüeña— “The Stork”—due to his long limbs and awkward movement on the field. At 13, he gives up playing, instead going to work with his father at a logging company that is trying to clear away the forest. He credits his father with him becoming the soccer player he is because he “learned everything” (5) in the forest.

Gato gets distracted from his story, staring at the World Cup. He tells Faustino that he used to dream about winning the World Cup and taking it home to his father. He would leave it in his arms while he slept.