The House of the Scorpion

Matt, the clone, is now six years old. It is early morning, and Matt spreads his arms in front of the door to keep his caretaker, Celia, from leaving. She tells him that she has to work, and he pleads for her to take him along. Celia reminds Matt that he can’t, as he must stay hidden. He shrieks—he can’t bear to be left alone for another day. Celia reminds him that she loves him more than anything in the world and will explain things to him when he is older. Matt is still angry, as the house is quiet and empty when Celia is gone. When he was younger, he kept busy with his toys and television and avoided looking at the bright white poppy fields surrounding his home. However, he began noticing children riding horses and desires to see them closely. He has only seen children on television and is intrigued by them. He has never seen anyone other than Celia and the sour doctor.

Matt knows he can’t go outside. He reads his favorite book about the adventures of Pedro el Conejo (Peter Rabbit). Matt takes the snacks Celia left him and goes to her room. The crucifix hanging over her bed frightens him. He plays with stuffed toys and watches TV with “such an intense feeling of desolation, he thought he would die” (8)—he knows they aren’t real. As he cries, he suddenly hears a real child’s voice and runs to the window. Though Celia has warned him to hide if someone comes to the window, he is too excited to care. The children discuss whose house it could be and rattle the front door. One child looks in the window and sees Matt. Matt freezes with fear.

The children demand that Matt open the window and share his name. When he doesn’t reply, they wonder if he is an idiot. The boy recognizes Celia’s picture, and they debate whether to tell his father that the cook has a child in hiding. After they leave, Matt is both overjoyed and afraid. He decides not to tell Celia. Celia returns home. When he calls her “Mama,” she reminds him she isn’t his real mother; he was loaned to her. He has trouble understanding this but knows that whoever loaned him would want him back. Matt asks to hear about the kids of the Big House again. Celia tells him that they are lazy, selfish, ungrateful brats. As she names and describes them, Matt realizes he saw Steven, who is 13, and the visiting Mendoza girls, Emilia, who is also 13, and María, who is his age and is tormented by Steven’s mischievous brother, Tom. That night, Matt practices how he will introduce himself and invite the children to play if they come again.

After Celia leaves for work the next morning, Matt waits for the children. Steven, Emilia, and María arrive just before sunset. An excited María asks Matt if he wants to play. Matt is stunned, as she stole the one sentence he practiced. When they demand that he open the door, he shows them that both the door and the window are locked.

Steven and Emilia begin to walk away, but María refuses to leave. Matt worries that María will be left alone in the dark. He takes a pot and smashes the window. Matt finally speaks: “My name is Matt. I live here. Do you want to play?” (17). Surprised that he can speak, Steven asks Matt if that’s how he usually opens a window and notices that the window has been nailed shut. Steven asks if Matt is a prisoner. When María says she wants to play, Matt jumps out the window and lands on the broken glass. He cuts himself and passes out from the pain. Steven and Emilia carry him back to the Big House through the poppy fields. Having never experienced such pain before, Matt screams. At the end of the poppy fields is a wide, green lawn leading to a vast mansion with pillars, statues, and an arch carved with the outline of a scorpion.

When the maids see Matt, they take him from Steven and take him inside the house. They think he is Celia’s secret son and start taking glass out of his hands and feet. In the background, Emilia and María argue. María notices the writing on Matt’s foot, reading “Property of the Alacrán Estate” (22). Steven’s fierce-looking father bursts into the room, alarming the children. Steven tells him that they found Matt in the poppy fields, and since he hurt himself, they thought the doctor could help. Mr. Alacrán roars at Steve for defiling the house—they need a vet, not a doctor. He demands the maids take “the creature” out of the house and burn the bloodied sheet. Mr. Alacrán whispers in the confused Rosa’s ear. Horrified, she grabs Matt and dumps him on the front lawn.

Matt lays on the lawn alone, staring at the stars in the night sky, and then realizes that Steven, Emilia, and María are watching him. Steven explains that Matt is an animal—a clone. Emilia asks why Matt’s brain hasn’t been destroyed like those of other clones. Steven explains that El Patrón wanted his clone to grow up like a real boy; he is so rich he can break any law he wants. Emilia thinks it disgusting, as clones aren’t people. María asks what a clone is, and Emilia tells her a clone is a “bad animal.” The doctor appears, telling Mr. Alacrán that they should have called him at once, as it is his responsibility to make sure “it” stays healthy. They decide to take him to an empty room in the servant’s quarters and call Rosa for assistance. She pleads with the doctor, not wanting to touch the “filthy clone.”

Mr. Alacrán suggests they return Matt to Celia’s house. The doctor says it is too late, as the children have seen him. They lock him in the empty servant’s room, where Rosa leaves a bucket and newspapers. Matt asks Rosa to tell Celia where he is. Smiling maliciously, Rosa tells him that Celia isn’t allowed to see him and leaves. The silence terrifies Matt, as he has never gone to bed alone. Matt imagines the Virgin Mary watching over him until he falls asleep. He wakes up when María enters the room. She gives food to Matt and asks Matt to promise not to bite him, because Emilia told her clones are “as vicious as werewolves” (29). Matt promises that he never bites people. When she asks if he has seen the movie about the werewolf, Matt is excited to have something in common and to have her attention. They discuss movies and monster stories. Matt tells María about the Chupacabra, a monster that sucks the blood of goats, and La Llorona, who searches for her children whom she drowned. Matt realizes that he is able to retell Celia’s stories wonderfully. Frightened by the stories, María concludes that she has to stay with Matt until morning. Matt makes room for her on the bed, and they use the newspapers as covers.

Matt likes María more than Steven and Emilia because she is his age and doesn’t insult him. Though he doesn’t understand what a clone is, he knows it is a bad thing. He wonders about the writing on his foot, as he once believed everyone had a tattoo like him. María has a nightmare and calls out to her mother. At dawn, Matt attempts to urinate noiselessly in the bucket in a corner where María can’t see him. When María turns over, Matt jumps, tipping over the bucket. Matt is trying to clean up the mess with the newspapers when Rosa and a group of maids arrive. Rosa scolds María for hiding with the filthy clone all night and calls Matt a “little brute” for peeing on the ground.

When Rosa brings Matt dinner, he asks when María is coming back. Rosa snarls that she never will. The doctor checks on Matt’s wounds every day. He treats Matt coldly but is friendly with Rosa. He tells Rosa that El Patrón hasn’t asked about the beast in years. Though El Patrón sometimes seems senile, at other times he is as sharp as he once was. Matt understands that they are afraid of the old man but doesn’t understand why. He is aware that he is El Patrón’s clone but doesn’t know what that means. Thinking of Celia, Matt starts to cry. When the doctor and Rosa leave, Matt looks out the barred window. He can see a bit of sky, a wall, and a garden. Matt longs to see something more interesting.

One day after a heated argument, the doctor tells Rosa that he is leaving to care for El Patrón. Angered, she pulls Matt by his hair and tells him he is responsible. She threatens to kill him if he refuses to obey her. That night, Rosa has his bed and bucket removed and tells him to use newspapers like a dog. Matt sleeps badly on the cement. His body aches, and he is ashamed to use the newspapers. From then on, Rosa brings him food while ignoring him. Though Rosa cleans the room daily, the stench lingers unbearably. A frustrated Rosa fills the room with sawdust like a henhouse. Matt realizes he can sleep on it and starts to tunnel through the shavings, which amuse him for a while. Upon his return, the doctor is appalled at Matt’s new environment. Rosa explains that deep litter is the best way to keep chickens healthy. Admitting that Matt is in good condition, the doctor points out that Matt doesn’t talk like he used to. Though clones go that way in the end, Matt was brighter than most.

Matt realizes Celia probably forgot him and finds it too painful to think about her. Instead, he entertains himself by hiding food to attract bugs. He treasures a feather a dove leaves behind and wonders if it means the Virgin is watching over him. One day, a red-haired boy shows up at the door. He calls Matt ugly and tells him to act like a pig so he can report back to María. Matt registers that the boy is Tom and flinches upon remembering María. Tom degrades Matt until Matt flings a rotten orange filled with worms at Tom’s face. When a screaming Tom leaves, Matt thinks again of Celia and the Virgin and regrets his action, though it gave him pleasure. Tom returns with a peashooter, hitting Matt’s bare chest as he sits in a corner. When Tom finally leaves, Matt rearranges his disturbed sawdust and waits for dinner. To his shock, Celia arrives at the window with María. Celia exclaims—she was told that Matt was with El Patrón. Matt is unable to move or speak, and Celia wails miserably. María remembers when the dogcatcher got her dog, reassuring Celia that Matt will get over it. Celia knows there is only one person who can save Matt and decides to give a letter to María’s father. Celia assures Matt that she will save him. After they leave, Matt is grateful to be alone in his sawdust kingdom.