Manny takes Addie around downtown Esperanza. He talks about Pancho not always being home for the holidays and how confusing it was when he did join them, because Mateo would cry for days when Pancho left again. Addie wonders if it would have been better for the Bravo boys not to have a son at all. Manny asserts he can’t change anything about the past but is trying his best now, and Addie shuts down the conversation, afraid to talk about how she really feels about his absences.

Addie and Manny shop and come across a man selling poems. Manny attempts to buy one for Addie, but when he is unable to answer the poet’s questions about what Addie is like, he gets embarrassed and storms off. Later that night, Manny apologizes to Addie for his behavior. He talks about what it was like, growing up with Pancho; whenever Pancho was around, everything was about training and wrestling, and the boys were happy to do so, to make him proud. Things changed after Speedy died; it was the first time Manny saw Pancho cry, and the family seemed to crumble after that. Addie understands that Manny was hurting, but she is tired of “adults being so busy thinking about themselves […] that they couldn’t see when they were hurting someone else” (299).