Mike Milo and Howard

The relationship between Mike Milo and Howard is an employer–employee arrangement built around bringing Rafo from Mexico to his father. Its central tension is that Mike’s assignment treats the boy as the object of a bargain, while Rafo’s distrust and Mike’s growing attention to him make the trip more than a matter of carrying out Howard’s instructions. Howard remains absent from these encounters, but his employment agreement shapes them at every turn.

The Employment Bargain

Mike identifies himself to Rafo as a worker for the boy’s father and offers his employment card as proof. The card supports the factual part of his story, but not the assurance that Howard wants Rafo back out of love. Rafo counters with the history that matters to him: his father has not seen him for five years and did not spend even a small amount on a birthday present. From that evidence, he suspects that the promised payment for taking him north is another lie.

Mike had hoped Rafo would consent to going with him, making the crossing resemble an escort rather than an abduction. The boy sees through Mike’s claim about his father’s affection, and negotiation fails. Howard’s assignment therefore places Mike in an uneasy position: he is acting for an employer, but the person he must transport does not trust the employer’s motives—or Mike’s account of them.

The Deal and Its Limits

When the travelers need money, Rafo proposes calling Howard. Mike refuses. He recalls that Howard once declined to take his call and considers telling Rafo that the father wants him north as leverage in a dispute with the boy’s mother, while keeping his own legal position clear in case the matter reaches court. This is Mike’s assessment of Howard’s purpose, voiced in the form of a confession he considers making; the scene does not establish it as an independently confirmed account from Howard.

Instead, Mike tells Rafo that calling is not an option because it is part of the deal between him and Howard. The explanation satisfies the boy, who places particular weight on agreements, treaties, and promises. The exchange reveals the bargain’s double edge: it gives Mike a reason to refuse a request that might expose the arrangement, but its language of obligation also offers Rafo a form of reassurance. Mike’s employer’s deal becomes meaningful to the boy even though Rafo distrusts the father who made it.

Money, Care, and a Changing Relationship

The distinction between employment and personal responsibility becomes clearer as the journey continues. After Macho’s cockfight victory, Mike keeps only the hundred pesos he had put into the betting pool and directs the remaining proceeds to Rafo. Porfirio counts the winnings out to the last centavo; when he calls the money blood money because Marta and her four children depend on their rooster, Mike initially urges them to leave. The episode places Mike’s practical concern for Rafo beside a harder response to the people affected by the boy’s winnings, complicating any simple picture of him as merely carrying out Howard’s commission.

Later, when food arrives for Mike and Rafo, Rafo wants to return the pot to Marta so they can thank her. Mike agrees to go with him, and Rafo corrects his wording and offers to teach him a complete sentence in Spanish. These are small exchanges, but they show the journey acquiring obligations that do not come from Howard’s bargain: gratitude to Marta and a willingness on Mike’s part to learn how Rafo wishes to express it.

The Relationship’s Significance

Howard’s absence is part of the relationship’s structure. Mike can produce proof that he works for Rafo’s father, but he cannot make that fact establish paternal care, and he declines to let Rafo contact Howard when the boy asks for money. The contract supplies the journey’s original purpose; it does not resolve the distrust that purpose creates.

As Mike gives Rafo the cockfight proceeds and joins him in returning Marta’s pot, the narrative sets measurable transactions beside acts of attention and reciprocity. The evidence does not erase Mike’s deceptive start or settle Howard’s motives beyond Mike’s own understanding of them. It does show why the employer–employee bond becomes an increasingly narrow frame for the journey: Mike’s conduct is shaped not only by his agreement with Howard, but also by the boy and the people they encounter.