Summary

Chapter 23, “The Girl Petrona.” Cassandra and Chula make plans to skip school and be at the house when Petrona came so they could hear Mama’s interrogation of her, a response to her (Mama’s) troubling dream. When their school bus arrives, they sneak away from the rest of the students, and while they are trying to figure out how to fill the time until Patrona’s regular arrival time, they go into a bakery. There, they are surprised to see Petrona with a man that Chula recognizes as her boyfriend (Gorrion). Conversation between the uncomfortably direct Cassandra, the uneasy Petrona, and the over-confident Gorrion results in the bakery’s elderly owner threatening to call the police. Cassandra tells Chula to run, and the two girls take off, but only Chula gets away. As she tries to figure out where to go...