Summary

Kirsten Valdez Quade’s first short story, Nemecia, is narrated by the protagonist Maria. Maria recollects her experience of growing up with her cousin, Nemecia, who was sent to live with them in New Mexico due to her mother being unable to care for her. Seven-year-old Nemecia first met Maria the day after she was born. She had brought a porcelain doll for Maria however it smashed after she dropped it and had to be glued back together. It sat in the bedroom they shared together as children. Maria recollected how Nemecia appeared to her, how she ate all the time and “had an air of tragedy and glamour about her” (Location 31). She remembered being fearful of her cousin as she had told her that she had caused her mother’s coma and killed her grandfather when she was five. She made Maria promise...