Chapters 17 and 18 Summary

In Chapter Seventeen, "About Today," Joe takes Graciela back to her modest apartment, where she changes into a cigar worker's outfit. She asks about the woman Joe loves, saying that women can sense such things, and he replies that she died. He asks if she is happy about the guns, and she says yes, because she loves her country in her heart, the way he loves the dead girl. Later, they watch as the guns head for Cuba in fishing boats. That night, they go to a speakeasy with Dion and Esteban. Watching Esteban dance, Graciela tells Joe he danced professionally in Cuba to pay his way through law school, which startles Joe. Graciela and Joe dance and flirt, but she says they will never be lovers, because they love other people. The next scene finds them in bed together, after...