Under The Feet Of Jesus

After hours spent freeing the car from the mud, the family finally arrives at a run-down clinic: “All this, just to arrive at a heap of aluminum foil and missing tires” (135). They help Alejo inside, and as they wait for someone to appear to help them, Perfecto “read[s] the room for signs of disrepair so that he could barter his services for theirs” (136). Petra, meanwhile, looks at a scale and a jar full of cotton balls and thinks about how she used to dampen the cotton she picked to make it weigh more.

Finally, a nurse enters the room, and Estrella explains that Alejo is sick. The nurse begins to question the family about Alejo’s last name and family, and they lie and say he’s Petra’s nephew. There’s no doctor in the clinic, so the nurse weighs and examines him, asking why they didn’t bring Alejo in sooner, and announcing that she thinks he has dysentery and needs hospitalization.

The family discusses this among themselves, worried about how they will pay and whether Alejo is documented. As Perfecto and Petra express reservations about taking Alejo to the hospital, the nurse says she will only charge the family $10 for the visit.