Summary

Chapter 20 – This chapter returns to the multi-columned style of earlier chapters. Saturn’s columns are in third person, while those of other characters in first.

Saturn – On an extremely hot day, Froggy leaves his home and goes to lie out in the field. Federico goes after him, carefully stepping on a nail as he goes, because the pain clears his head. Federico tries to persuade Froggy to come back inside, telling him that “Saturn is back.” Froggy promises to think of nothing that Saturn could use in the war. Narration reveals that he and the town began to suffer from lead poisoning, the result of everyone having lined their homes with lead to keep Saturn out.

Little Merced – Little Merced describes how Federico sterilized a nail before he went out to meet Froggy. She later saw blood on the front steps of...