Mañanaland

Buelo comes home with bad news from Papá: fixing Max’s birth certificate is taking longer than planned. Max is in a bad mood for days. Max is distracted by the weight of what he learned at the tower, fear that he would never have a birth certificate, and resentment at all his family’s secrets. His mood grows worse since he cannot talk to his family about what he learned, having broken their rules by going to the tower alone:

How could he carry something so enormous and troubling in his heart, yet behave as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened? [...] Maybe it would be easier than he thought. After all, he came from a long line of imposters, secret-keepers, and liars (122).

Buelo leaves to play a card game with friends. Buelo tells Max that Buelo will stay the night with Max’s aunt Amelia if there is a storm and Buelo can’t walk home.

Once Buelo leaves, Max looks through Papá’s papers again and finds a note from his mother to his father:

This is the best we can all hope for.

Please do not follow me.

I loved you. R (124).

The note upsets Max. He skips dinner and falls asleep on the sofa. Outside, it begins to storm.

A magical sequence occurs where wind blows the roof off Max’s house and floats kitchen furniture around him. La Reina Gigante becomes a real giant queen and makes her way through the storm from the cliff to Max’s side. She sings the lullaby Max hears at the tower and encourages Max to sleep. She leaves and Max runs after her, though she has become a tower once again.

At 2 o’clock in the morning, Max is woken by someone knocking on the door. When Max asks who it is, a voice replies: “A pilgrim, true of heart” (128), like from Buelo’s story. Thinking it’s Buelo playing a game, Max opens the door. Instead, he finds a strange man who introduces himself as a friend of Papá and Buelo named Father Romero. When Max tells him that Papá and Buelo are away, Father Romero reveals to Max that he’s there on guardian business. Max is surprised, having thought guardians were “a thing from the past” (130). Max learns Papá escorted a woman named Rosalina to safety only four weeks ago—when Max thought Papá was away working on a bridge. Now, Father Romero has brought Rosalina’s sister Isadora to hide in the tower. There is a reward out for Rosalina and Isadora. They are both in danger and Isadora needs to be moved urgently.

Max volunteers to escort Isadora in Papá’s place. The situation is dangerous since Isadora is being followed, but Max is adamant. He wants to meet the next guardian and ask them about his mother. He wants to prove he can do things on his own. He tells Father Romero he wants to help the guardians, like they helped his mother: “Favor con favor se paga” (134). Father Romero finally agrees. He commends Max on his bravery and selflessness, though Max knows he is volunteering for his own reasons.

Father Romero uses Papá’s bridge map to show Max the way to the next guardian. The black stars on the map are hiding spots for guardians. Father Romero tells Max to cross the last bridge on the map, then continue to a place off the map, expecting Max to know the way from there. Max doesn’t know the way, but Father Romero leaves before Max can ask for more information.

Max looks at the map again, and sees the last bridge is the “Bridge of a Thousand Mallards”—meaning the next guardian must be Yadra at the secret bridge. The directions are written into Buelo’s stories. Max is thrilled the story is true, and nervous for the task at hand.