Summary

As the commuter train approaches Boston, Frank thinks about Lulú López, his current love. He is nearing 50, “the perfect age at which to sit back on this train and gaze out this window in order to think” (67). He met Lulú at the creative writing workshop he conducts at the Learning Sanctuary, a federally-funded school for immigrant children. Lulú, a Mexican immigrant working as a nanny, was there to pick up her cousin. Frank hesitated to get involved. Lulú is half his age. She is ebullient and joyful, such “blissful and raucous” (70) energy perplexing to him. But he was compelled by her lustrous hair, a “dark rich buffalo-pelt brown” (73), and by her coaxing smile, despite the tell-tale uneven front teeth, what he terms “poverty teeth” (72). She shares stories of her difficult childhood in Mexico and her dreams of becoming a civil engineer...