Three years after Pidre moves to the mining town of Animas, he saves up enough money to invest in his own business. His business partner Mickey takes him to a distant section of town where they meet a man named Otto. Otto shows Pidre a red-rock natural structure surrounding a beautiful meadow. Pidre agrees to buy the property. Later, he and Mickey attend a traveling Wild West show. In addition to reenactments of western battles and a horrific show in which a man fights a starving, toothless bear to death, Pidre watches the performance of a woman sharpshooter named Simodecea. She gained notoriety for accidentally killing her husband when a bear attacked her during a past performance, breaking both her legs. Pidre goes to her dressing room after the show, introduces himself, and says, “I have a theater made of red stone. I need my star attraction, and I want you” (79). Simodecea agrees, so long as there are no bears involved.

Working side by side at the laundry, Luz and Lizette discuss how difficult it is to be a parent. Luz remembers her mother Sara, which often causes her to cry. She remembers her and Diego’s displacement to Denver, when a stranger looked at her and said to her brother, “Your elders are in the little one” (83).