The Barbarian Nurseries

Keenan and Brandon get scared as the night wears on and ask Araceli to sleep with them. She compromises by sleeping on the floor in the hall. She wakes up early and tries to call the other numbers on Maureen’s emergency contact list. First, she tries Scott’s phone, but he is sleeping off a hangover at Charlotte’s house. His phone dies before he wakes up because he forgot the charger. Araceli tries several times, but Keenan interrupts her.

She snaps at him that she is not his mother, which causes him to run away. To apologize, she draws a dragon on the bathroom mirror with soap. She makes the boys pancakes and tries another number, Scott’s office. However, she gets an automated message saying they are closed Saturdays.

Next on the list is Scott’s mother, who Araceli remembers meeting; the old woman had been rude, telling her that she hoped Araceli appreciated the job working for Scott. Still, she tries the number and gets a message that it has been disconnected.

Next on the list is the Goldman-Arbegast family, who are friends. Calling this number, she hears a message saying they are out of the country on a long vacation. There are no more names on the list. She wonders why Scott’s father’s name is not on the list, remembering when she met him.

Maureen is happily enjoying the spa with Samantha. She had planned to go home Monday, but then she learned about a “Monday discount” and decides to stay one more night (145).

The boys ask if their parents will ever come back. She reassures them that “your mommy will be back soon. And Araceli is taking care of you now” (145). She reasons that “what else can you do but tell two lost boys but that you will take care of them?” (145).

Araceli wakes early the next morning and spends some time studying the pictures in the family room to try to figure out who she can contact. She sees their grandfather, Scott’s father, and decides: “if their parents don’t come back, I’ll take them to this old man’s house” (147). She realizes that “she might soon have to start thinking like an immigrant, like a desperate woman”—like she had when she first came to the United States (147).

Scott wakes up at Charlotte’s, having spent two days eating junk food and playing video games with her. He decides to stay a little longer and keep playing.

Araceli calls Marisela for her advice, and she warns that the boys will likely go to Foster Care. This frightens Araceli. She has seen how curious and intelligent they are, with such big, innocent imaginations. She “did not want to be responsible for that loss of innocence” that would surely happen in Foster Care (149). She also does not want to call the police for fear that they will report her to ICE.

That night, Keenan has a nightmare, waking Brandon and Araceli. Unable to go back to sleep, she goes to have tea in the living room and sees similarities between the picture of Senor Torres as a young man and her own Mexican mother. On instinct, she checks the back of the photograph and finds a Los Angeles address.

Monday morning, her third day alone with the boys, Araceli calls Scott’s office only to learn that he has called in sick. She leaves a message at his desk phone in desperation. Scott, meanwhile, is in a hotel room after rebuffing Charlotte’s romantic advances.

Araceli contemplates taking the boys to their grandfather. She does not consider that he may have moved, because “property in Mexico stood as a constant” (153). When Scott does not call back, she tells the boys to get ready—they are going to find their grandfather after lunch.

Keenan, Brandon, and Araceli set off on their journey, the boys with suitcases and excited to see their grandfather, who is always fun. They walk out of the community and wait for a bus “for the first time in their young lives” (157).

On the bus, Araceli worries about the boys’ safety in the event of a crash. Witnessing a bus accident in Mexico City had been the catalyst for her move to the United States.

Scott decides to return home and begins the drive but misses his exit on the freeway. Rather than reroute, drives aimlessly all the way to his childhood neighborhood in South Whittier. He drives around, remembering his difficult, poor childhood. When he reaches his old house, he sees a large, Hispanic shrine to the Virgin Mary in his old neighbor’s backyard, and he is afraid “of her statue, her Spanish, her weird religiosity, and the power of all those things to chase away his old neighbors” (161).

Araceli and the boys reach the Laguna Niguel train station. They get on the train, and the boys are impressed with the sketching Araceli does to pass the time. They pass over the river, and the boys see a makeshift city of homeless people camped under the bridge. Brandon, an avid reader, imagines that they are “defeated soldiers and displaced citizens of the City of Vardur” from one of his post-apocalyptic books (166). Araceli feels increasingly protective of the boys.

At the spa, Maureen watches Samantha sleep and misses her boys. She calls home.

Araceli and the boys arrive at Union Station, which impresses them. Araceli gets directions to the buses and the information officer tells the boys that the ruins of Chinatown are under the train station. Brandon imagines digging down and finding remnants of all kinds of lost civilizations, expanding his imagined history of Vardurians.

They get on the bus and travel through Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Keenan notices the very poor and homeless people who get on the bus and comprehends for the first time what his mother means when she tells him “there are a lot of needy, hungry people in this world” (173).

They get off at their stop in a poor, run-down part of LA. As they cross the street, Judge Robert Adalian notices the unlikely group. The judge notices that the boys are out of place because of the way they look around with curiosity. He drives on, “unaware that in a few weeks’ time his memory of crossing paths with […] the Mexican woman with the two ‘white’ boys […] would win him an appearance on cable television” (176).

Continuing on through graffitied buildings, Araceli begins to sense that they might be in danger. The houses and apartments have barred windows. The boys are sure this is not where their grandfather lives, but Araceli pushes forward based on the address she found on the back of the old photo. They find the house and “it was clear that el abuelo Torres did not leave here, and could not live here, because everything about the place screamed poverty and Latin America” (178).

A woman in the next house asks if they need help, and Araceli shows her the photo. The woman suggests that she ask the old man, James “Sweet Hands” Washington, who lives in the apartment behind her, because “he’s been here forever” (180). James recognizes the photograph and Johnny Torres, who was one of the first Mexicans to move to the area. He tells Araceli that the Torres family moved away a long time ago to the desert or Huntington Park.

Araceli feels “trapped and desperate” and sits down on the curb (182). She briefly considers calling Foster Care from the phone booth across the street, wondering if “innocence is a skin you must shed to build layers more resistant to the caustic truths of the world,” because she recognizes that she realizes that she and the boys come from two different “tribes” (183).

However, the woman from before opens the door and comes to speak to them.

Isabel Aguilar is the woman who spoke to Araceli. She lives with her son, daughter, and “the Other Boy,” Tomas, who had lived with them for two years (184). She recognizes Araceli’s desperation and goes outside to ask if the three travelers want to come in and have some hot dogs for dinner. Keenan and Brandon are excited by this and run inside. They make themselves at home watching a movie with Isabel’s children. They speak together in a bilingual mixed language. Araceli explains the situation to Isabel while she cooks.

Brandon explains his fantastical perception of Los Angeles, which surprises Tomas. As the son of an abusive drug addict, Tomas “had never imagined it to be anything other than a harsh kingdom ruled by adult realism and caprice” (190). Isabel orders Tomas to go to the store down the street by himself to get milk, cheese, and bread. Keenan and Brandon watch him go and return, concluding that he must be some sort of slave.

Scott finally returns to Paseo Linda Bonita that evening, having decided that “Maureen had every right to hate him” for behaving badly during their argument and compounding “his sins to higher orders of shame by leaving his home and his post as patriarch for seventy-two hours” (192). He finds the house empty and concludes that Maureen has gone, run away, and that this might signal an end to their relationship. Depressed by this thought, he wanders outside, out of the community, and down toward the beach, deciding to sleep on the sand.

After dinner, Araceli and Isabel keep watch over the kids, who sit on the porch steps. Tomas tells Brandon and Keenan a short history of the neighborhood which used to have a small gang problem and then an illegal black-market bazaar. Araceli and the boys stay the night with Isabel.

At the spa, the hotel clerk advises Maureen to stay one more night to avoid high traffic. Despite the fact that she is worried that no one is answering the phone when she calls, she decides to stay.

Awakened by a drunk shouting in the middle of the night, Araceli wonders what Maureen would say if she knew her boys were in a place like this. She then calls Marisela, who has an uncle who lives in Huntington Park.

The next morning, Araceli takes the boys on the bus to Huntington Park to see Marisela’s uncle. Traveling is easy because it is the Fourth of July holiday.

Arriving at their stop, Araceli and the boys stop at a store to ask for directions, where the owner mistakes the boys for Araceli’s children. They find Huntington Park, which is “a landscape of very old American dreams” (207), the population of which had become more Hispanic in the past decades. The community has “a large Spanish-speaking Mexican clan, and the shrinking but still influential Mexican-American clan that never spoke Spanish, and a small clan of people who still called themselves white” (208). Rather than show the old photo around, Araceli plans to meet Marisela’s uncle, who is on the Huntington Park city Council, and ask him for help.

Maureen arrives home just before noon and finds the house empty. At first, she thinks that Scott has taken the boys on an adventure, since his car is in the garage, and brought Araceli to help. She checks the park but sees no one. So, she parks her car by the entrance to the community, reasoning that they will have to pass this spot on their way home.

Araceli finds Marisela’s uncle, Salomon Lujan, who is expecting them. He invites them to stay for the Fourth of July celebration “and tomorrow I will find the grandfather” (212). They go with him to the backyard, where the guests are cooking carnitas by burying a pig underground to roast. This unsettles Brandon, who imagines a fiery underworld under his feet.

Salomon introduces Araceli to his daughter, Lucia, and her friends, and invites the boys to go play on the new trampoline. Lucia has just returned from Princeton “and still suffering from the cruel cultural whiplash” (215). She likes talking to Araceli, who tells her that she has decided that “the ‘aventura’ with the boys would be her last” as a housekeeper (216).

Scott wakes up on the beach and starts walking home. He sees Maureen’s car parked on the road. When he reaches her, she asks where the boys are, and the two of them quickly work out that neither of them has Keenan and Brandon.

The party at the Lujan house grows to 100 people. Most of them are awe-struck by Lucia, who has accomplished so much and gone so far from Huntington Park. Brandon and Keenan go mostly unnoticed. One of Lucia’s friends, Griselda, questions Araceli excitedly about Mexico City. She is “as intelligent and curious as Lucia, but with a tragic air” (219). She reveals that she got into Brown University but “couldn’t go” for some reason (220).

Araceli upsets the parents at the party, as she isn’t paying much attention to the boys in her charge. She further upsets them all by revealing how much Maureen and Scott spend to send them to private school.

The boys have a good time playing with the other children, who are throwing firecrackers. Brandon warns the other children to be careful, feeling “truly alone and afraid” for the first time (224). He understands that “it was one thing to play war when all the sounds came from your mouth or your imagination, and quite another to be standing in a cloud of gunpowder” (224). He is frightened when the fireworks start, thinking they are bombs.

The fireworks show lasts only a few minutes, which angers the community. A group marches on the Lujan house, blaming Salomon the City Councilman for the poor display. Brandon concludes that they are a lynch mob. Police arrive to disperse the crowd. Lucia shouts “reforma!” from the front porch as the crowd leaves; Brandon and Keenan join in, but then wonder who “Ray Forma” is (231).

Maureen and Scott quickly realize they have left their boys alone with Araceli for four days. Frantic, they search the house and go into Araceli’s room, where they find her eclectic artwork, which disturbs Maureen.

Maureen and Scott wander about the house as the “boyless silence became an excruciating judgment on their own actions” (231). They realize how little they know about Araceli—they did not even recall her last name until finding “Ramirez” on her mail. Maureen is appalled that she knows nothing about Araceli and may have endangered her children. Finally, they conclude that they have no choice but to call the police.

After the mob leaves, Araceli puts Keenan and Brandon to bed in Lucia’s room, since she is going to be out late.

Maureen calls the police to report that her sons are missing. When asked when she last saw them, she lies: “Yesterday” and then “no, I mean the day before yesterday” (236). She is panicked and cannot say four days ago, because “it would have taken a very calm, rational frame of mind to untangle for a stranger how a mother and father could abandon their sons for four days” (236). She tells the operator that the boys are with their Mexican nanny. Although the operator suspects they are lying, she sends a patrol car.

The responding officer, Ernie Suarez, takes their statements. Hearing that their maid is Mexican, he asks about her immigration status, even though this is against protocol. Scott and Maureen do not know if she is legal. The officer remembers horror stories from his friend working border control and wonders if Araceli is trying to take the boys to Mexico. They show him Araceli’s room and artwork. He is disturbed by the cubist and surrealistic paintings, which look “dismembered” and imagines that Araceli may hurt the boys (240). He calls his station to report a possible kidnapping situation at the fancy Paseo Linda Bonita Estates.

For the next few hours, “the story of the Mexican housekeeper and the two missing boys from one of the richest neighborhoods in Orange County gathered mass and momentum” in the news cycle and is “pushed along with a flotsam of facts and half facts and speculations” (241). By the next morning, headlines have become “Close the border! California boys in alien kidnap drama” (242).

The next morning, the boys wake up before Araceli and go examine the remnants of the pit where the pig had roasted the previous day. They agree that they want to go see their grandpa. Lucia interrupts them to say that they are on the TV because “you’re missing” (243). The noise wakes Araceli, and she watches TV with the boys, Lucia, and Griselda, waiting for the news report to cycle back around. The report comes back, saying that the boys “are believed to be in the custody of their housekeeper, a Mexican immigrant” with a blurry picture of Araceli (245). Another report shows a backup of traffic at the border, where authorities are searching all cars because “detectives in this case have reason to believe she may be taking them to Mexico” (246).

Araceli is frightened and turns off the TV, blaming Maureen for causing this because “she wants to punish me for acting like their mother, even though I never asked to be their mother” (247). She tries to explain to Lucia and Griselda, who look at her suspiciously.

Keenan starts to whine that he wants to go home, which brings Brandon to his senses; he suggests they simply call home, say where they are, and wait for someone to pick them up.

Hearing this, Griselda gets up to leave, saying she wants to be gone before the police arrive because “I don’t have papers” (248). This shocks Araceli, since Griselda doesn’t speak much Spanish, but explains why Griselda couldn’t go to Brown, even after her acceptance. She explains that she came into the US when she was 2 years old and has never spoken much Spanish. Griselda suggests Araceli leave too; Araceli remembers that she is also undocumented, her confusion coming from “carrying a secret so long you forgot you were carrying it” (249).

Brandon calls home and tells his father that they aren’t missing, and that Araceli has “been taking care of us” (249). He also asks where his parents went, leaving them, but gets no answer.

Although Araceli knows she has no reason to run, as she didn’t kidnap the boys, she “liked the idea of thumbing her nose at the police and the immigration authorities with the simple fact of her absence” (250). She also worries that no one will believe her, especially if Maureen contradicts her. So, she leaves the boys in the Lujáns’ care and leaves.

As part of the investigation into the kidnappings, a CPS official visits Maureen and Scott’s house. Olivia Garza does not believe the kidnapping story and senses that Maureen and Scott are lying about the timeline. She questions the parents and concludes that they are hiding “something small and insignificant” (254).

Also, among the authorities is Ian Goller, “a third-ranking member of the district attorney’s office” (254). He is interested in this case because he can sense it will channel the public’s outrage. He is also frustrated that he spends so much of his time dealing with “naïve Latin American immigrants” like Araceli (256).

Maureen is growing nervous and decides to confess everything to Olivia Garza when the phone rings; Brandon is calling and keeps her from having to tell the truth.

Araceli is happy to be free from the responsibility of caring for the boys and walks through the neighborhood at “a deliberately unhurried pace” (257). She sees a police helicopter arrive and several police cars drive by, which makes her walk faster. A boy in a nearby house recognizes her from the TV and starts to shout. Several townspeople start shouting at her, demanding to know where the children are. She reaches a huge power transmission tower and climbs over the fence to head out away from the development. In the distance is a film crew shooting a movie. They watch Araceli walk into their shot and see two policemen arrive, jump out of the car, and chase her.

Araceli runs away from them, but almost laughs at the absurdity of the situation, thinking: “this is our Mexican glory, to be pursued and apprehended in public places for bystanders to see” (261). The police catch her quickly, one of them tackling her to the ground.