Chapter 20

Antonio continues to go to confession and take communion every week, but finds it disappointing because the answers and understanding he sought are not to be found there after all. His group of friends become contentious with the boys from Los Jaros, and his former teacher explains to him that it is all just a part of growing up. When his teacher asks if he wants to be a farmer, after he tells her he will be going to his uncles' farm for part of the summer, he repeats what Ultima told him: "a man's destiny must unfold itself like a flower". She remarks that Ultima is wise, and Antonio notes that his teacher somehow seems older and he muses that perhaps they are all older now. As he continues home, Antonio finds that the Vitamin Kid is not there to race him across the bridge -- instead, the Kid is walking with a girl. Though this is the first time Antonio has beat the Kid, he isn't happy at his victory and only feels sad that something good has ended.

Antonio sees tracks under the trees around his house, and worries that they belong to Tenorio. He is concerned, too, about rumors he hears regarding "evil things" happening at the Agua Negra ranch, which people think are the result of a curse. A man from one of the families, by the name of Téllez, comes to Antonio's home searching for Ultima's help to lift the curse. He provides evidence of the curse's existence with stories of things flying around inside his house, being burned with hot coffee, and stones raining down on his roof. He tells Antonio's family that even the blessing of a priest has not stopped the effects of the curse, and Antonio's father decides to go with Téllez back to his house to see the signs himself. When he returns, he is convinced that the house is indeed cursed. Ultima tells him that it was not a curse laid on a person, but rather one laid on a ghost, which is now haunting the house. Ultima explains that many years ago, the land that is now Agua Negra was the land of the Comanche Indians. Three Comanches raided Téllez's grandfather's flocks, and he killed them and didn't properly bury them. As a result, their souls now haunted the land. The witches who laid the curse on the area placed it on the ghosts instead of on people, so as not to get caught. Though Ultima reminds Antonio's father of the rules that guide interference with a man's destiny, she agrees to help lift the curse because Téllez is an old friend of the family.

Ultima heads to Agua Negra, and Antonio and his father go with her. As his father and Ultima marvel at the beauty of the land of llano around them, Antonio thinks to himself that from his mother he has learned that man is from the earth with gives him safety and security, but that from Ultima and his father he has learned to love the magical beauty of the earth, and that the greater immortality of man is his freedom nourished by the land and open sky.

When they get to the Téllez home, Téllez enthusiastically greets Ultima. Téllez's wife cries and looks sick, and tells Ultima, Antonio and his father that she cannot offer them anything to eat or drink. At this moment, a cloud comes over the house, and stones begin to rain down on the roof. Ultima performs a ritual where she burns three bundles in a pyre that the men construct for her. No one but Ultima knows what is in the bundles, but the ritual lifts the curse. Téllez asks how he can repay Ultima, and she says that he need only bring her a lamb the next time he is in town, and to stay away from the evil Tenorio. This warning reminds Téllez that he encountered Tenorio in a bar the previous month, and that Tenorio had insulted him and he had responded, and directly following this was when the bad things started to happen at Téllez's home.

That night, Antonio dreams of his three brothers. In his dream, his brothers wander in the mist in a foreign city, and they call to him, asking that he save them from their unrest. Antonio calls back to them that he has no real power to help them. He takes the livers from his three brothers, and baits his fishing hook to catch a catfish from the river by which he stands. His brothers call to him again, "But you have the power of the church, you are the boy-priest! Or choose from the power of the golden carp or the magic of your Ultima. Give us rest!" Moved by their pain, Antonio takes their livers from his fishing line and casts them into the river of the golden carp; then they, and Antonio, are at peace.

Discussion Questions
1. What do you think Antonio's dream at the end of the chapter means?

2. What do you think is in the bundles of that Ultima burns during the ritual at Téllez's house? Is it the bodies of the cursed Comanches, or something symbolizing their remains, or something else entirely?