Summary

Chapter 18, “The Hills.” The tedium of school starting again in the fall is broken by the exciting news that Pablo Escobar has been arrested. Even while there is uncertainty about what is going to happen next, to him and to the country, there is country-wide celebration, so much that Mama decides to give Petrona a holiday. She and Chula drive her to her “invasion,” through the part of the city where the bombing took place that Chula remembers for the image of the girl’s leg with its shoe. As they pass the scene of the accident, they see first a mountain of flowers where Chula thinks “the girl had her last thoughts” (153), and then new construction at the site of the bomb blast. When they get to Petrona’s home, Chula is surprised and upset to see the carpet man with the...