The Bird Hotel

Raya, who goes to northern California every year to earn money harvesting marijuana, dies of a tumor while there. Alicia is six. Clarinda is graduating and going to university. Jun Lan visits with her two boys. She now practices traditional Chinese medicine and reports that someone on the hillside next door to Irene is growing the baby-making herb. Irene thinks that Dora always was a good businesswoman.

Tom Martinez comes to the hotel. He is dark-haired, well-built, and in his early forties. Irene feels led to trust him, and he shares that he lost his father, too. They spend time together, and Irene feels attracted to him. He swims every morning, explores the area, and stretches out in the hammock reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera.

Each year the gringo population holds a Spiritual Awareness Festival that draws young travelers from around the area. Irene attends to see the play Amalia is putting on with the village children to explain the importance of good nutrition. Irene notices that the locals put up with these events in a good-natured way as long as they don’t require expenditure on their part or threaten their safety; they understand that the gringos are necessary to the economy of their town. Katerina, the protest singer, is followed by a woman named Dawn. She has long gray hair, yellow sneakers, and is very thin. She has no instrument but sings a song Irene knows from her childhood, and Irene realizes this is her mother, Diana. She approaches her to ask.

Irene learns how Diana met Charlie, the bomb-maker. He was staying in the house of a woman named Chris. Jamal, who had split with the Black Panthers, joined them. When Charlie bought nails to put in the bombs, Diana sent young Joan to stay with her grandmother. The bomb was intended for an army recruitment center. Diana was going back to pick up her vinyl records when the explosion took place. Jamal and Chris managed to escape. Diana took her records and left her ID at the site. She mailed her records to Joan and then became a fugitive, afraid of being arrested. She changed her name, took jobs that didn’t require a background check, and ended up harvesting marijuana. She met Raya, who mentioned that she knew a woman who looks like Diana. When Raya died, Diana took her passport and came south to find Irene.

Diana says she wants to know about Irene’s life, but Irene can only think of how her mother abandoned her and her grandmother. Irene needs some time and says she’ll be in touch.

Irene spends part of each day drawing; she finds it a kind of meditation that helps her deal with difficult emotions and find peace of mind. She’s trying to come to terms with the news that her mother is alive and, in all the years after the accident, never came looking for her. She thinks, “this woman who called herself Dawn […] was a sad reminder of everything I’d lost as a child, everything I’d done without” (355). Instead of contacting her mother, Irene spends more time with Tom. Her feelings for him are growing.

Irene tells Tom about herself and realizes she is falling in love with him. One night, when the fireflies come out, she invites him to watch them with her. He puts his arm around her, and they kiss.

Irene spends the night with Tom in the Monkey Room, where he is staying. She believes that she’s found love again. She tells Tom she doesn’t have expectations, but they spend more time together. One night, Irene is ready to tell him the whole story about her mother, but Tom tells her to hold off. Irene agrees, thinking, “We were just so happy […] Things were perfect as they were. If only nothing ever had to change” (362).

Diana sends Irene a note asking to talk.

At breakfast, Tom shares that he can’t find his wallet. Irene talks to Elmer, who learns that Walter stole Tom’s wallet. He returns it, and Irene sees the badge of a New York City police officer. She feels betrayed. She’d loved Tom, and he was only investigating her. She sends a note telling Diana to leave town. Tom can see that Irene is angry and tells her, “Whatever it was I thought I was doing when I came here, that’s not how it ended up” (367). Irene won’t listen and tells him to leave. He admits he came to La Llorona to find answers; DNA testing proved that the fingertip of the woman found in the street that day wasn’t Diana Landers, and he was obsessed with tracking her down. Now, he’s fallen in love with Irene. He departs, and Irene “did what I’d always done then. I got on with my life” (368). Letters come from Tom in New York City, but Irene doesn’t open them.

Walter says goodbye; he is leaving to try to cross the border into the United States, where he hopes to find work. Irene has seen many young men of the village try to make the trip, hiring a coyote to get them across the border, and having to pay whether they succeed or not. Irene wishes she could help Walter, thinking, “The irony did not escape me that the place Walter wanted to desperately to go to was one I had so desperately needed to leave” (373). Irene reflects on how, when she first arrived, she swore she would not love Walter, but she does.

Hank and Martha Purcell from Connecticut check into the hotel. They are coming to buy Gus and Dora’s farm for Hank’s pharmaceutical company.

The day begins with a beautiful morning, but then the wind picks up, and the birds are restless. There is an explosion, then a rumbling. Everyone looks toward the volcano. The top is glowing bright orange, smoke pouring out. The volcano is erupting. Elmer races off to fetch Mirabel, whose grandmother lives at the base of the volcano. Lava pours down the mountainside, heading toward the village. People flee in terror as the lava crushes their houses. Irene doesn’t run. Elmer returns, carrying Mirabel. Irene, Maria, Luis, and Elmer bring Mirabel to the hotel. Irene asks about the baby. Mirabel gave birth that morning. When the volcano erupted, she put the newborn in a boat and pushed the boat onto the lake hoping it would save him. Irene walks to the dock and sees the boat. Though she has been afraid of the water all her life, she knows what it will mean to Mirabel to lose her child. Irene thinks of what Clarinda used to say—“I’m a fish” (384)—and dives into the lake, bringing the boat and the baby safely to shore.

Much of the village is destroyed by the eruption, but the cinder wall that Gus and Dora built stops the lava from flowing over Irene’s property: “That wall they’d built […] spared my gardens and my hotel” (386). Gus and Dora’s enterprise is wiped out.

The villagers of La Esperanza rebuild. Donors from outside send money to help. Amalia and the children make their eco-blocks. The president of the country visits to commend them. Clarinda is accepted to medical school. Letters come from New York, reduced to one a year, around the time the fireflies appear. Irene still thinks of Tom and of her mother.

Irene is 46 years old. Every morning, she swims a mile. La Llorona has a five-star rating and rooms are booked months in advance. She likes her life. She buys back the land from Gus and Dora and signs over their half to local families so they can raise crops and flowers. Her old jocote tree still yields fruit. Irene wonders where Walter is.

Another letter comes from Tom, which Irene opens. In it he says that meeting her let him come to terms with the bitterness that had filled his life. He was the son of the police officer who was killed by Charlie’s bomb. Seeking justice for his father, Tom joined the police force and became a detective. When DNA testing revealed that there was no trace of Diana Landers at the bomb scene, he set out to find her daughter in order to find Diana, whom he blamed for his father’s death. Tom was the one who called Irene’s art teacher. He visited Lenny’s parents, who showed him the stamp on the envelope Irene sent. He tells Irene that his love for her was real and, a year earlier, Diana came to his door. She was dying of lung cancer and asked his forgiveness. He is writing to say that Diana is dead, and he wanted Irene to know the truth.

A woman comes to the door: Charlotte, Leila’s daughter. Charlotte grew up thinking her mother was Sofia, Javier’s wife. She moved to Paris and danced ballet. When her father died, Charlotte found Leila’s letters. Irene shows her the grounds, and Charlotte remembers the stone egg. That night the fireflies emerge, though it is not their usual season. The next day Irene flies to New York and goes to Tom’s apartment. She has some of Jun Lan’s magic herbs, and they work.