Lines 16-27 Summary

Lines 16-21

Touched her shoulder, and led
Her down the street, across
A used car lot and a line
Of newly planted trees,
Until we were breathing
Before a drugstore. We

• The action in these lines, as it is throughout the whole poem, is pretty clear.
• The speaker and the girl walk from her porch through some fairly blah scenery, until they end up at a fairly unremarkable destination. Weak date, right?
• But there is some other stuff going on below the surface in these lines. You just have to know where to look. 
• First of all, take a look at the end of line 16, "and led." End words tend to get a lot of attention. They kind of hang there in white space at the end of the line and our eye tends to linger on them for a moment longer than words that are all clumped together in the middle of lines.
• Soto sticks that word "led" there at the end because he wants us to notice it. Perhaps he's trying to give us some insight into the speaker's frame of mind. He wants to lead. The speaker wants to show this girl that he's a take-charge kind of guy. 
• Next comes those "newly planted trees." There newness is emphasized in contrast to the "used car lot" in the previous line.
• Those trees are doing more than just filling in that ho-hum scenery. They function symbolically as well. They represent youth and, in a sense, the budding relationship between the speaker and the girl as well.
• Finally, we have "we." The word pops up in line 20 and line 21. Repeated words in close proximity, especially with these really short lines, attract a lot of attention. 
• But wait, there's more. Not only is "we" repeated, it's also used as an end word in line 21 leaving a capitalized "We" dangling there in the white space just begging to be noticed.
• So, why all the "we"s? We're glad you asked. Take a look at just lines 20-21:
  Until we were breathing
  Before a drugstore. We
• Before line 20, the speaker is always "I" and the girl is always "she" or "her. " Lines 20-21 represent an important shift.
• The lines describe the speaker and the girl breathing in unison in the cold. They are breathing as one. They are a unit. They have become "we"—the transformation emphasized by that single capitalized "We" at the end of line 21.

Lines 22-27

Entered, the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Down a narrow aisle of goods.
I turned to the candies
Tiered like bleachers,
And asked what she wanted—

• These lines move the setting from exterior to interior—from the street to inside the store.
• When the speaker and his girl enter the drugstore, the bell over the door rings, telling the saleslady someone has entered the shop.
• The aisles are "narrow." This isn't some giant Walmart. It's more likely a small neighborhood store.
• The sensory detail of the bell ringing helps us to experience the scene in a more complete way. We can hear what's happening rather than simply picturing the scene.
• The two kids head for what two kids would be most interested in a drugstore: candy. (Mmm, candy.)
• Soto uses a simile to describe the candy aisle: "tiered like bleachers."
• The image of the colorful packages lined up in orderly rows, one behind the other, like the bleachers at a sports arena certainly makes sense visually, but the simile works on another level as well.
• What are bleachers usually filled with? Candy? Nope. We wish, but alas… No, bleachers are usually filled with people.
• Besides being visually accurate, this simile also gives us a sense of how our speaker might be feeling—perhaps a little self-conscious, like everyone is watching.
• "Everyone" in this case might just be the saleslady and the girl, but still, when you're twelve and on your first date, that can be a lot of pressure.
• Being the gentleman and big-spender that he is, the speaker lets the girl know the candy is his treat. Smooth move, kid.