Summary

In Chapter 5, after Efrén dropped the twins off at school, he remembered that he had not done his homework the night before. He did not think he would be able to “annotate an entire three-page article for Mr. Garrett with only fifteen minutes until the first bell” (60). Mr. Garrett had a strict homework policy, and he knew he would never be able to explain why it was not done without a parent’s note. He asked David to write a fake note but he could not bring himself to hand over the phony excuse. After school, he raced home expecting Amá to be cooking in the kitchen. However, the apartment was empty and “the stale scent of dread now [filled] the room” (65). That night he heard Apá talking on the phone about Amá and asked his father when she would be...