Chapter 28 Summary, Analysis, and Key Takeaways
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The chapter opens with Carmen deciding to spend the summer with her father, who lives in a log cabin a few hours inland. Nora has moved to the city, and Carmen writes to her father proposing the visit, against Nora's advice. He agrees, and Carmen arrives to find him much as she remembers—medium height, stocky, with the same dark mustache that is the only feature she can reliably picture when he's away.
Her father keeps a salt lick in the yard, attracting deer, rabbits, and chipmunks that he photographs. He occasionally shoots these animals for meat, storing it in his freezer for winter. Carmen initially admires his observation that all creatures like salt, taking it as a deep insight about natural self-regulation, though she later comes to see the salt lick as humanmade and therefore not natural at all.
Carmen works beside her father at his repair shop for three months, helping answer calls, diagnosing broken vehicles, and using the machine that prints spare parts. She cooks for him and fits herself into his life without being a bother. She enjoys the work and the community of friends who gather around him, and she feels superior to Nora for understanding something Nora couldn't.
Her secret purpose, however, is to convince her father to take her and Skipper in permanently. Grandma's behavior has become erratic, and Nora suspects the onset of cognitive decline. Carmen talks about Skipper constantly—her work on the Bumblebee, her quietness, her lack of complaining—hoping to make her case. She writes letters home, but Skipper's replies are infrequent and short, and as the weeks pass, Carmen's worry fades. She feels relief from Grandma's criticism and thinks this might be what childhood should have been like.
At summer's end, her father drives her back to the pink house. Skipper is on the porch mending a pile of clothes, her fingers blistered and bleeding. Carmen is struck by how scrawny her sister looks. Skipper says Grandma missed Carmen's cooking, and Carmen wants to cry as the weight of home returns. She's angry at Skipper for not telling her how bad things were, and angry at herself for pretending this wasn't predictable.
Her father offers Skipper a candy bar, and Skipper's grin breaks Carmen's heart. Skipper talks enthusiastically about the Bumblebee, giving Carmen credit for everything. Carmen regrets not spending the summer with her sister. When Skipper asks their father to stay for dinner, he laughs and declines, saying he has to get going.
Carmen realizes her father doesn't want to be there. He doesn't want responsibility, and he thinks Skipper is weird. A psychosomatic itch spreads across her shoulder blades, and she scratches a track through her skin, claiming an ant is inside her shirt. All the good feeling of the summer washes away.
Grandma comes out half-asleep and greets Carmen with judgment. Carmen thanks her father for the summer; he says they'll do it again, but avoids her gaze, and she knows they never will. He leaves without saying goodbye to anyone else. Skipper says,