Summer of the Mariposas

Odilia wakes in the cave, surrounded by the corpses of butterflies that are attached to her sisters’ hair and legs “like dried pressed flowers” (183). The warlock is hunched over a bubbling cauldron. He explains that he has perfected his recipe so that Odilia and her sisters will barely feel it when it kills them. He believes that by sacrificing them, he will break his curse and become as powerful as a god. While the warlock works, Odilia loosens the ropes that bind her hands. However, as soon as she makes headway, the warlock is in front of her, saying, “Oh no, you don’t” (186). Odilia remembers that Teresita told her she would have to sing to defeat the warlock, but she can’t remember what she is supposed to sing. Surmising that the warlock has used a potion to erase her memory, she spins the ear pendant and asks for Tonantzin’s help. Suddenly, she remembers the song her mother used to sing to her and her sisters, and she begins to sing. She wakes her sisters, and they sing too.

As the sisters sing together, the butterflies flock together to form a tapestry that is the image of Tonantzin. The image comes to life, and Tonantzin herself appears in the cave. Fleeing in terror, the warlock trips and falls into the cauldron, his body dissolving in agony before the girls’ eyes. Without even stopping to thank the goddess, the girls run from the cave.

The sisters walk until they see a barn. They agree to stop and rest. However, just as the girls are falling asleep, Odilia hears the lechuzas, or owls, descend. Odilia quietly tries to reach for the silk thread, but as soon as she has it in her hands, the owls attack, pecking at the girls relentlessly. The twins manage to escape, and Odilia feels profound disappointment that the twins would abandon their sisters. Odilia notes that the most terrifying thing about the lechuzas are their faces, which look like “dried up pieces of fruit, desiccated human faces—witches, with metallic beaks for lips” (202). As the owls peck at Odilia, Pita, and Juanita, they scream their innermost fears: Odilia fears that is responsible for her sisters’ demise, Pita fears that she is spoiled, and Juanita fears that she is a jealous know-it-all who should have listened to her older sister. Just when the owl attack is at its worst, the twins burst into the barn armed with spades and metal baseball bats. They beat back the owls, killing them off one by one. Odilia plucks a silk thread from Pita’s dress and ties the necessary seven knots. As soon as she does, the owls vanish.

After defeating the owls, the Garza sisters sleep to regain their strength. The presence of something “inherently evil” awakes Odilia several hours later. The sisters spy a humble sheepherder outside the barn door. The herder, a 12-year-old boy, introduces himself as Cresencio Aguilar, Chencho for short. Though Odilia is suspicious of the boy’s friendliness and odd, bedraggled appearance, Delia and Velia scold her for assuming the worst. Chencho offers to accompany the sisters on the road, but Odilia politely declines. She notices that Chencho takes a keen interest in Pita, whom Odilia realizes is growing up before her very eyes.

When the girls depart, they find Chencho waiting for them on the road. Odilia acquiesces to traveling with him. As they walk, Chencho tells the girls that a demon, or a chupacabras, attacked him and took one of his eyes. Odilia recalls Teresita’s husband saying he once wounded a chupacabras in the eye. That night the girls camp in an abandoned house that Chencho knows, only to be awoken by an attack from a chupacabras, who bites Pita in the leg. Odilia defeats the beast by driving a stake into his eye. Just when she is about to kill him, the beast reveals himself to be Chencho and begs for mercy. He explains that he cannot help his behavior. Remembering La Llorona’s instructions to be noble and kind, Odilia spares Chencho’s life.

The demon attack focuses the girls, prompting them to be more responsive and considerate of one another. They tend to Pita’s wound and carry her on a stretcher until they reach Abuelita Remedios’s house. Abuelita Remedios cures Pita’s wound, and the sisters spend several days in the joy of Abuelita Remedios’s care until she tells them it is time to reunite with their mother. The sisters ask about the whereabouts of their father, to which Abuelita Remedios replies, “He’s up to no good. Otherwise, why would he be trying to divorce your mamá?” (253). The girls are deeply disappointed to discover that their father will not be returning home. They express guilt at running wild while their mother suffered. However, Abuelita Remedios encourages them to stop blaming themselves for their father’s mistakes: “Sometimes, men leave, for whatever reason […]. Nothing you did or could have done differently would have changed that” (257).