Zemser uses the approach of story-within-a-story to amplify the cultural differences between Sarina and Boima. Boima tells Sarina not to climb the mango tree— their secret meeting place—by herself. He explains by telling Sarina a story about a boy called Tuesday, who climbed the mango tree to get food for his village, and then was bitten by the poisonous snake who lived there. The boy knew he was going to die, but he grabbed the snake by the neck and squeezed it to death, thereby saving the other people of his village from its poison.

The villagers all gathered around the tree, where the dead boy and the dead snake hung from its limbs. Tuesday's mother cried, and his father chopped the snake's head off and buried it in the ground. Sarina stops Boima to ask him about the story, curious about what...