Fruit of the Drunken Tree

After Pulga, Uña and Alacrán leave Petrona’s hut, she goes to find Gorrión. She asks him to beat her up so the Santiagos will take pity on her and take her in, which will allow her to stay close to Chula and ensure she does not reveal anything about Gorrión. Gorrión gives her gunpowder and liquor to numb the pain, and he hits her. She is full of hatred for Gorrión, who has betrayed her, and for the Santiagos, who are oblivious to her desperation. 

At Petrona’s First Communion, Mamá, Chula, and Cassandra meet Doña Lucía (Mami) for the first time. After the service, they go to the Sanchez’s home in the Hills for a party. They drive to the invasión and park at the bottom of the hill. Clad in church clothes and carrying party provisions, they begin the steep climb to the Sanchez’s hut. The air is thick with orange dirt dust. They encounter Julián, who is younger than Chula. Julián pesters them, first asking Petrona if her white gown and veil means she is married, then badgering Mamá.

When they reach the Sanchez’s hut, the Santiago women meet Petrona’s siblings. Aurora is ten—one year older than Chula. While they are enjoying cake and soda, Petrona’s Tío Mauricio joins them. Chula is afraid of him and believes he is a witch. He asks her to hold out her hand, and he gives her a snail shell. Tío Mauricio tells Mamá he can fix “any problem” (185). Fernandito, Petrona’s drug addict brother, returns home smelling of glue. He becomes aggressive, and a scuffle breaks out between him and the younger brothers. Mami expresses frustration and helplessness over his state. After the party, Mamá and her daughters climb back down the hill to their car. Once they are in the car, Mamá says Tío Mauricio “is a bad man” (188) and asks Chula what he handed her. 

Petrona recollects her First Communion day. She feels beautiful and pampered, but reflects that the finery is borrowed and the pampering is short-lived. She feels guilty and hypocritical because she is still yoked to criminal activity. Each night while she is living with the Santiagos, she pretends to go to sleep, piling laundry under her covers to look like her sleeping body, while she sneaks out to pass envelopes to men on motorcycles. She reflects on the double nature of her physical body—one body appears innocent, the other guilty. When Petrona looks in the mirror, she sees the eyes of a liar. 

Chula wakes when a nearby car bombing causes the window next to her bed shatter; the broken glass injures her, and she bleeds. While in shock, she is preoccupied wondering what happened to the two cows she habitually watches from her window. Superstitious, Mamá smashes and burns the snail shell Tío Mauricio gave Chula. Cassandra tells Chula that the cows are safe, and Chula is “ecstatic” with relief. Chula moves to Cassandra’s room, and before they sleep, she asks Cassandra if she thinks they are safe. Cassandra assures her that they are safe.

After the bombing, the neighborhood is without running water, so a truck comes to supply the residents. Petrona is off from work for a few days after her Communion, so Chula calls her to tell her about her “recent brush with death” (197). Chula wonders if the car bomb might have been a guerrilla attack targeted at the wealthy Oligarch. The girls decide the Oligarch is to blame for the tragedy, and they team up with Isa and Lala to exact revenge. They sabotage the Oligarch’s electric generator, which lights up her house when the rest of the neighborhood is without power. The generator catches fire, and the girls run.

Mamá comes home in the late morning with wet hair and a supply of water. Chula wonders where she has been, how she was able to shower, and where she got the water. Mamá tells the girls that she had a dream about Petrona surrounded by men drinking whiskey from bottles. The men had monstrous grins that stretched “all the way up to their eyes” (204). Mamá interprets the dream as a bad omen: she fears Petrona is involved with dangerous people. Chula nervously admits that she thinks “Petrona is afraid of someone” (204). Mamá instructs all the neighborhood guards to report to her on Petrona’s movements. When Mamá returns home, her judgmental neighbor, La Soltera (the spinster), points out a bouquet of flowers left for Mamá by her secret paramour. La Soltera accuses her of being a “Bad Mother” (205). Petrona fails to appear on the day she is meant to return to work, and Chula worries. 

Petrona notices that since the assault by the three young men, Aurora’s eyes appear glazed over. Petrona promises Aurora that she will soon have enough money to buy concrete for “a real floor” (206) and tells Aurora not to worry. Petrona recalls placid days with her Papi when she was a child and the family had plentiful food and land. After Papi was abducted by the paramilitary, she was visited by visions of him.