We Are Not from Here

Pequeña washes clothes with the help of a mother of a little girl with braids. The mother tells Pequeña that a train leaves the next day, and that she (Pequeña) must make sure to board it with Pulga: “I know it may seem impossible, to go on after something so terrible has happened. But…it’s the only way” (244). Pequeña feels a strange kinship with the woman and is certain they knew one another, perhaps in another life. Likewise, the woman tells Pequeña she looks familiar to her. They wring clothing in a rhythm so natural that it is like they have “done it a million times before” (244). When the woman goes inside, Pequeña weeps for Chico and steels herself to leave the shelter. That night she tells Pulga he must go on; Pulga eventually agrees: “I know. I know. Even if it kills us” (245).

Waiting all day for the train, Pulga angrily turns aside Pequeña’s offers of bread. He thinks Pequeña is sorry for making him keep going, though she tells him bluntly that staying will not bring