Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

Gabi is ecstatic after the poetry reading. She is Martin’s girlfriend now and she turns 18 years old on January 23. Martin gives Gabi an autographed book by Sandra Cisneros, one of Gabi’s favorite writers. Gabi’s father continues his tradition of gifting her a small doll, and Gabi’s mother finally gives her a cell phone.

Gabi contemplates why her mother places so much value on a woman’s sexual past: “Does she think that since she slept with my dad and never got married (at least in the Catholic church) that she is stuck with him for the rest of her life? That no one else would want her? That is really sad” (146). She drafts a list of questions she would like to ask her mother but feels like she can’t because many of them concern sex.

Just days later, on February 3, Gabi finds her father deceased in the family’s garage, the result of an overdose. At the wake, Gabi reflects upon the clean version of her father with combed hair, clean fingernails, hidden rotten teeth, and makeup covering his scarred face” (153). Gabi is expected to speak at the funeral, but her thoughts trail off and she breaks down, and Beto comes to comfort her.