The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Music tells the story of where Frankie’s magical strings came from. Carmencita, Frankie’s mother, received the strings from a gypsy family as a gift for an act of kindness. The man in the family says that the strings are “To connect the child and the father. They are special strings. […] They have lives inside them” (210).

After Carmencita died in the church giving birth to Frankie, a teenager found her purse, “which inexplicably survived the flames” (212). He returned the purse to the address listed on her ID, and inside, El Maestro found the guitar strings. 

In the van at Woodstock, the beautiful woman is kissing Frankie’s neck. He’s thinking of Aurora, how he left her “pregnant, sleeping on a blanket. He knew he had to get back, he didn’t want […] to be irresponsible, as he’d been so many nights before” (215). He quickly gets up and leaves the woman’s van.

In 1951, Frankie is a part of Marcus Belgrave’s band. Frankie is hiding in Hampton Belgrave’s trunk. Hampton is Marcus’s brother, and Frankie had heard from Marcus that Hampton was going to drive to Tennessee; so, Frankie and the hairless dog are hiding in his trunk to get a ride.