The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

Nestor hatches a plan to gather some of Nestor’s father’s supplies from Abuela’s house, ask Abuela how to stop the witch, and then go to the quarry. When they reach the house, however, Abuela is missing, and there’s a bloody claw mark through the wallpaper. Abuela’s disappearance brings back a memory of a time Nestor felt completely alone. His father had just left on his first deployment, and his mother accidentally forgot Nestor at the grocery store. This time, the absence of his father, mother, and Abuela all at once feels even worse.

Talib and Maria Carmen help clean up some of the mess left in the wake of the tule vieja. Maria Carmen invites Nestor, Brandon, and Talib to spend the night at her house.

On the way to Maria Carmen’s house, the friends hear a woman screaming, “Just let them go! You have to let them go!” (223). It’s Miss Humala, arguing with her mother, the tule vieja. The mother transforms into a snake, binding Miss Humala while warning her daughter not to stop her. Having seen enough, the friends continue on to Maria Carmen’s house. Once there, Maria Carmen claims the group needs to study for a trivia competition, gaining permission for the sleepover.

The group pretends to study trivia as Nestor starts a page in his sketchbook titled, “Brilliant Plan to Defeat the Tule Vieja” (232). They research facts about the animals the tule vieja can transform into. Maria Carmen and Brandon find pocketknives to free Brandon’s father from the spider web. However, they are no closer to knowing how to defeat the tule vieja.

Later, when Maria Carmen and Brandon are asleep, Talib looks through Nestor’s sketchbook. When Talib finds Nestor’s tally of how many days he’s been in New Haven, he expresses hope that Nestor gets to stay in New Haven for many days. Nestor realizes he’s done “the stupidest thing” he’s ever done—“let New Haven become home” (235).

Nestor can’t sleep and flips through his dad’s animal encyclopedia. He wishes his father left some advice on how to handle tule viejas. Nestor finally starts to drift to sleep but is interrupted when the snake/witch appears on Nestor’s chest. She taunts him: “Your family is gone […] And here you are, my dear, with no home. You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” (238).

As morning light shines through the window, Nestor wakes up suddenly, realizing it was a dream. Except it’s not—he hears shouting outside. It’s Brandon begging the tule vieja to let him go as she drags him toward the woods. Nestor rushes outside and is immediately attacked by the tule vieja. She stands over Nestor, “her eyes rimmed with red, her skin a mottled grey. Veins in her forearms pop as she grips a twisted oak branch” (239). Nestor fights her off of him and checks on Brandon. The tule vieja starts transforming into a wolverine, but Brandon hits her with a rock. She runs away toward the quarry. Talib and Maria Carmen are missing, having been already taken by the tule vieja. Brandon and Nestor head into the woods to save their loved ones and stop the witch. Nestor feels ill-prepared to face her: “All I’ve got are the shoes on my feet and a sixth grader with questionable hunting skills next to me. That’s all we’ve got against a shape-shifting witch” (241). However, the two continue on to the quarry.

Just as they are about to enter the quarry, a group of animals shows up ready to help. With their skills, and Nestor’s ability to communicate with them, their chance of succeeding improves. The group makes a strategic plan to search a cave in the quarry for everyone the witch has taken. Brandon suggests a plan for maintaining group visibility and communication. Nestor realizes that even though he initially thought Brandon was just a bully and wannabe military kid—someone Nestor’s father wouldn’t like—Brandon and Nestor’s father would get along after all.

The sky darkens as the solar eclipse gets nearer, filling the air with cricket chirps since the crickets think night is coming. Cuervito returns from checking the cave and confirms that their loved ones are inside. The group descends into the quarry. Suddenly, the wolverine/witch appears and knocks Brandon over. A bear steps in to fight the witch, giving Brandon and Nestor time to continue into the cave and rescue everyone. Inside the dark cave, Val the coyote uses his night vision and guides Brandon and Nestor. They find Abuela and Brandon’s dad wrapped in spider silk. Brandon no longer has his knife to set them free, but Val gets a bobcat named Rufus to cut them free with its claws. Val and Rufus find Maria Carmen and Talib and set them free from the spider silk as well. The group finds all the stolen animals, and Rufus frees them.

The moon is halfway across the sun, meaning the total eclipse is only moments away. Nestor sees how worn out his Abuela is and asks Brandon’s dad to look after her. He notices Brandon’s dad has a Marine tattoo and realizes Brandon’s father is ex-military. Nestor acknowledges his service and asks Brandon’s father to help get his Abuela home while they stop the witch: “I know she’ll be in good hands with a Marine” (253). A squirrel appears and leads the group to the tule vieja. The group of animals has her surrounded but needs the humans’ help. Nestor, Maria Carmen, Talib, and Brandon split into pairs to flank the witch. Nestor and Maria Carmen go one way and are almost to their position when Miss Humala appears and knocks Nestor over. Miss Humala tries to convince Nestor to give up. Miss Humala has never succeeded in stopping her mother and thinks it’s best to just let the witch have what she wants. Once the solar eclipse has passed, the witch will leave everyone alone in search of the next eclipse. Miss Humala is tired of standing up to her mother: “She’s been doing this my whole life. Do you know what it’s like being dragged everywhere across the globe while your mother chases eclipses? […] She’ll never stop” (256). Miss Humala fights against Nestor but gives up after injuring her arm. Miss Humala reveals that while biting animals makes the witch stronger, if an animal bites the witch, the witch becomes weaker.

They hear Talib scream in the distance. Nestor and Maria Carmen leave Miss Humala and rush toward the sound. They find Talib and Brandon unconscious with spider bites and Rufus the bobcat wrapped in a spider web. The tule vieja sinks her fangs into Rufus. However, the eclipse is not quite at its peak, so the bite doesn’t work to transfer the bobcat’s power. As the eclipse reaches totality, the tule vieja changes her mind and decides to prey on Nestor instead to steal his gift.

The eclipse will remain at peak position for the next six minutes. The tule vieja charges at Nestor. Just as the tule vieja is about to bite Nestor, a buck appears and pushes her off Nestor with his antlers. The coyote appears and scratches the tule vieja’s face. The witch transforms into a snake and moves toward Talib and Brandon, but Cuervito attacks her. Cuervito then licks Talib’s and Brandon’s wounds, healing them and waking them up. Chela helps Talib and Brandon—still weak from the spider venom—escape and get home.

Val bites the tule vieja, weakening her. She manages to wrap herself around Nestor, but the buck flings her off again. Nestor rallies all the animals to bite the witch and weaken her powers. A bear appears and bites the tule vieja, and then it sends her over a cliff edge into the quarry below. They’ve defeated her, just as the eclipse breaks and the sky bursts with sunlight.

Nestor writes a letter to his dad, telling him about the new trivia club sponsor (since Miss Humala left on a “long vacation”), the solar eclipse that came through New Haven, and the strange wolverine that was found in the quarry. Nestor tells him about how Brandon turned out to be a strong part of their team in the end (focusing on trivia club and leaving out their other “teamwork”) and that Brandon’s father is a Marine veteran, though he was honorably discharged before ever being deployed due to a back injury. His letter ends with an allusion to the truth of the past few weeks: “Did you know that some people believe you can get special powers during an eclipse? That would be crazy, right? You could learn to fly or gain super-strength. Maybe you could even talk to animals” (270).

Nestor, Brandon, Talib, and Maria Carmen, as well as their families, gather for a picnic at Abuela’s house to celebrate their most recent trivia club win. After defeating the tule vieja, all the lost animals returned to their owners, and people in town stopped being suspicious of Abuela. While Brandon’s dad never talked about his own encounter with the tule vieja, he had Brandon gift Nestor a Marine pin worn on dress uniforms. Nestor wears it on his backpack, along with his dad’s Army name tape—mixing Army and Marines in the way Nestor originally judged Brandon for doing.

As the group sits down for their picnic, Nestor’s mother comments on how Nestor has finally unpacked all of his things and truly settled into New Haven. The only thing that would make New Haven better would be to have Nestor’s father home. Nestor’s friends realize Nestor is behind on his tally of days spent in New Haven. He’s only recorded 22 days when he’s truly been there longer. With all the excitement of the past few weeks, Nestor has lost track of the days. He considers letting the days continue to pass, without counting down or anticipating the next move. He considers trading those tally marks in his sketchbooks with drawings of his friends and his life in New Haven—with “drawings of home” (277).