Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of domestic violence, sex trafficking, anti-gay bias, and ableism.

“So there we stood for quite a while, he on the stoop, I in the doorway, silently studying each other. We’ll see who wins, I thought to myself. But the little man kept his silence, still surveying the street as if he wanted to leave and I wouldn’t let him. The hat brim circled through his fingers. Even though the morning was cold, sweat began to pour down his brow. When his face finally reached the point where it resembled that of Saint Lawrence, beginning to feel the heat of the fire burning at his feet, I took pity on them.”

Mrs. Milagros’s first impression of Camilo establishes some of the protagonist's key character traits: his nervousness and diminutive physical presence. The comparison with St. Lawrence is one that Mrs. Milagros will repeat later on in her story, associating Camilo with martyrdom and prolonged suffering.

“You dream a lot! And what difference does it make if you dream or don’t dream if all the time you’re asleep? Besides, this is the first time I’ve heard that dreaming is bad for you. We all dream.”

Mrs. Milagros’s assumption that Camilo is misrepresenting his own medical needs is an early example of The Faulty Nature of Presuppositions. This episode foreshadows the later revelation that Camilo’s dreams are in fact day terrors that distort his understanding of reality.

“The one most affected by the pink notes and the mystery surrounding them was Miss Eufrasia. The poor thing belongs to the group of ladies who, if they had their way, would castrate everyone so people couldn’t think about ‘things like that,’ as Matilda put it, and so have lots of company in their celibacy. The letters ended up making her sick.”

The insults that Mrs. Milagros aims at Eufrasia are frequently based on her romantic status as an unmarried older woman. This is one of many examples throughout the book of how gender and sexuality dictate how characters treat one another and how social pressure is applied to conform to romantic ideals.