Antonio races the Vitamin Kid across the bridge as usual, then he and Samuel continue walking on to school while Andrew stops to supposedly catch his breath at the end of the bridge. The two boys walk by Rosie's house, and Antonio tells Samuel he saw the golden carp over the summer. Samuel is pleased to hear this, and tells Antonio that he might "become one of us". Antonio and Samuel share their respective experiences farming and sheepherding over the summer, but when Antonio tells Samuel that his mother wants him to become a priest, Samuel tells him that it is "the greatest calling".
When Antonio meets up with his old gang at school, the boys talk about what happened over the summer between Tenorio and Ultima, and then one boy asks Antonio if it is true that his brother has been "whoring" at Rosie's. Though Antonio doesn't know what this word means, he knows that Rosie's is a bad place. Several of the boys in the gang accuse Ultima of being a witch, and Antonio defends her. A fight ensues between Antonio and Ernie; though no one is hurt, after Antonio fights back the boys no longer tease him about Ultima.
One day a few weeks before the winter break from school, a snowstorm sets in. Antonio's sisters are allowed to stay home from school, but Antonio's mother tells him that if he is to be a priest he must learn about sacrifice, and so he goes to school in the bad weather. As he leaves, Ultima whispers to him "take care of the evil in the wind", and Antonio touches the scapular Ultima gave him in acknowledgment. As they walk to school, Samuel tells Antonio about a fight between Tenorio and Narciso the previous night at a bar in town, and speculates that the fight between them will not end until blood is spilled.
When he gets to school, Antonio finds that the only students there are other boys, which means that it will be only them -- without the help of the girl students -- to put on the annual Christmas play. The ensuing rehearsal devolves into chaos: Bones hides in the rafters above the stage, Horse throws a piece of wood that knocks out the Kid, someone knocks over the doll of the Christ child and the doll's head falls off. The play itself, performed for the other mostly male students at school that day, is no more dignified than the rehearsal: Abel wets his pants on stage during the performance; the audience yells at the actors, trying to identify who is in which costume; Florence accidentally breaks the light bulb that represents the light of the east and plunges the stage into darkness.
After the ludicrous theatrical production, Antonio walks home in the snow storm alone. On his way through the middle of town, he witnesses another bar fight between Tenorio and Narciso. Tenorio screams that another of his daughters is sick, and blames it on Ultima's "witchcraft". Narciso defends Ultima, and threatens to kill Tenorio if he causes any harm to her. In return, Tenorio says that he intends to kill Ultima and will kill Narciso, too, if he gets in the way. Narciso takes off to warn the Marez family and Ultima, but is afraid he will not make it to the house in the storm, so he looks for Antonio's brother Andrew instead. Antonio follows Narciso, and is led to Rosie's, where he finds Andrew. Antonio is shocked and disappointed to find his brother at the brothel, and muses on the loss of his innocence, remembering Lupito's murder and watching Ultima cure Antonio's uncle.
When Narciso finds Andrew, Andrew laughs off the warning about Tenorio's threat, and a frustrated Narciso decides to go to the Marez home to warn them, despite the storm. Following Narciso and unable to see clearly through the snow in the air, Antonio hears the sound of a gunshot. He comes upon Narciso, bleeding from a gunshot wound under the juniper tree and screaming that Tenorio has shot him like a coward. Tenorio attempts to shoot Narciso again to kill him, and when Antonio steps between the two men, Tenorio aims the gun at him instead. When the gun does not fire because it is out of ammunition, Tenorio runs away, and Antonio is again left to watch the final moments of a dying man's life. Narciso asks Antonio to take his confession, and he does.
In shock from witnessing another murder, and cold from the storm, Antonio drifts in and out of consciousness. In his fevered dreams, Antonio imagines he pleads for forgiveness for Narciso, but God says he will only do so if Antonio also asks for forgiveness for Tenorio. The Virgin Mary adds her voice to the argument, and says that she will forgive Tenorio, but Antonio does not want this because Tenorio has done evil things. Antonio's dream morphs into a vision of an angry mob driving his brothers with whips, and calling for Ultima's blood. His brothers plead with Antonio to bless them, and the dream shifts again. This time, Antonio sees the Trementina sisters dancing and performing a spell that causes Antonio to wither and die in sin because he hasn't yet taken the Eucharist. He imagines he sees the mob continue on: they burn his family's castle on the hill, put his school friends in chains, kill Ultima's owl, behead Ultima and drink her blood, burn Ultima's body, and catch the golden carp and eat it. Following these acts, the earth opens up and the church and school crumble into it, then the entire town follows. Antonio's dream ends with the golden carp reappearing and swallowing everything in his huge mouth, then glowing so brightly he becomes a new sun to shine down on a new earth.
Discussion questions
1. Considering the role Antonio plays in the final moments of several men's lives, how do adults in his world view Antonio?
2.What do the images and events in Antonio's fever dream at the end of the chapter symbolize?
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