Summary

Walking in someplace called the Big Chilango, Makina fears that she will get lost. She travels underground to the bus depot, and thinks about the people who are waiting for her return. They include her kid sister, who Makina hopes to teach about how to survive in a man’s world. They also include her boyfriend, who works in an elementary school. When he returned from his work in the Big Chilango, Makina avoided him because she knew he wanted to propose. Makina’s efforts to distance herself from him hurt him.

Makina remembers the day three years before when some of Mr. Aitch’s thugs turned up with a deed to land they said her family owned on the other side of the river. Makina and her mother were skeptical, but Makina’s brother announced his intention to go claim...