Sirena

Sirena is the first person narrator and main character of the short story. When Sirena is nine years old, her mother, father, and brother drown. Afterwards, Sirena is taken to a home for orphaned children in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Though the home's environment is not categorically abusive, Sirena feels perpetually alone and afraid. She particularly fears water. When she and the other children go swimming every Sunday after Mass, Sirena avoids the living beach, or the beach where the water is more wild and unpredictable. Instead, she swims on the beach of death, where the water is still and surrounded by rocks.

When Sirena is 13, a new boy named Martin comes to stay at the home. He is the first person to show Sirena any real affection since her family's death. He walks her to school every morning and holds her hands. He even tells her his...