The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

Later, Brandon pushes Nestor against the wall and warns him not to mess with Brandon’s hunting traps. Nestor debates punching Brandon but remembers what his father always says: that “a good person doesn’t react in anger” (91). Nestor, Maria Carmen, and Talib agree to immediately go to the woods and get rid of every last trap Brandon has placed. As the three walk through the woods, Maria Carmen talks about her brother. He joined the National Guard as a way to pay for college and was deployed to Iraq as a military policeman. He was killed by a grenade attached to an overpass, meant to kill soldiers passing under in a Humvee.

At home, Abuela gives Nestor a package from his dad with a book inside. During his father’s last deployment, the two mailed a book back and forth, adding notes and doodles for the other to discover. The book was The House on Mango Street—Nestor’s mother’s favorite book from childhood. This time, Nestor’s father has sent Nestor Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers. Seeing his father’s handwritten notes inside the book makes Nestor miss his father even more. Abuela tries to comfort Nestor, but Nestor snaps at her: “You wouldn’t understand. You don’t know what it’s like to start over. To have to be alone” (98). However, Abuela does know what it’s like. She immigrated to the US from Cuba when she was only two years older than Nestor. She reminds Nestor of this: “My parents put me on a plane by myself when I was fourteen years old […] Don’t you sit there and tell me I don’t understand what it’s like to start over” (98). Abuela knows how difficult things are for Nestor but promises they’ll get through it together. As she speaks, Nestor notices scratches on Abuela’s arm that look like the claw marks Nestor saw in the woods.

Nestor goes to his bedroom, where he’s been keeping the injured coyote. Nestor asks the coyote’s name, to which he replies, “Rabbits call me brave. Squirrels call me mighty. Mice call me powerful” (101). Nestor decides to call him “Val,” short for “Valiente”—Spanish for brave. Val tells Nestor he saw Abuela spend the day in the woods, a dangerous choice with a witch living out there. According to Val, the witch can take the shape of a wolverine. If she bites an animal, she can assume its powers.

The next day, Talib and Maria Carmen invite Nestor to Talib’s house to practice trivia. Nestor uses the outing as an excuse to sneak Val out of his house and back into the woods. After leaving the house, Maria Carmen reveals they aren’t actually going to study but are going to the woods to dismantle Brandon’s traps. They release Val and then begin to look for traps. While in the woods, Maria Carmen tells Nestor her mother saw Abuela in the woods and thinks Abuela’s to blame for the animal disappearances. Other people in town are starting to think so too. 

Nestor writes a letter to his father moments before his first trivia competition. He tells his father about teaching Talib and Maria Carmen to play dominoes and about getting rid of Brandon’s hunting traps. Nestor also tells him about finding an animal encyclopedia his father created as a child.

Nestor’s mother and Abuela are in the audience at the trivia competition. Some people in the audience point to Abuela, seemingly gossiping and blaming Abuela for the animal disappearances. As the moderator quizzes the teams, Brandon purposefully answers incorrectly to ruin the competition for Nestor, Talib, and Maria Carmen. However, the look on Miss Humala’s face makes him stop. After this rough start, the group starts to make a comeback. Eventually, the team is tied with just one question to go. Nestor correctly answers the final question, winning the competition. The answer was a wolverine.

After the competition, Nestor notices Miss Humala having an argument—with a gigantic brown snake.

While Nestor has had many teachers, seeing a teacher argue with a “ten-foot scaly snake” is definitely a first (125). Nestor shakes off the strange sight and turns his attention back to his friends. Maria Carmen invites Talib and Nestor back to her house for churros. Maria Carmen’s mother is friendly toward Talib but acts coldly toward Nestor. Talib thinks the shape-shifting creature he saw in the woods is to blame for the animal disappearances. He reveals that he saw a wolverine-snake creature. Maria Carmen saw the same creature the night her goats went missing. The three plan to look for the witch together the next day to clear Abuela’s name.

As Nestor leaves Maria Carmen’s house, he notices a flag on the mantle: “It’s the flag given to soldiers’ families when they’re buried. The flag they draped over the coffin of Maria Carmen’s brother” (132). Nestor runs home, haunted by images of war. He takes a turn into the woods, careless about the wolverine witch since “[i]t’s nothing compared with what Dad is facing thousands of miles away” (134). Suddenly, Brandon appears and tackles Nestor. Brandon knows Nestor dismantled his traps, and Brandon admits that he set the traps to help the witch. 

Brandon threatens to convince everyone Abuela is the witch if Nestor continues to mess with Brandon’s traps. Brandon worries the real witch will be mad about the traps Nestor has already destroyed. Brandon prepares to punch Nestor when Cuervito appears. Cuervito poops on Brandon’s face while exclaiming, “White lightning!” A squirrel jumps on Brandon’s head, and together, the two animals scare Brandon off.

When Nestor gets home, his mother has Nestor’s dad on video chat. She leaves Nestor to catch up with his father alone. Despite all the strange events in New Haven, Nestor pretends that everything is normal. He does mention the witch at one point, but the call glitches and his father doesn’t hear.

After the call, Nestor settles into his bedroom with his sketchbook. Suddenly, a snake appears at his unlocked window and breaks into his room. It’s the witch—though in her words, she’s not a witch but “something so much better” (145). She warns Nestor to keep himself, his friends, and his Abuela away from the woods: “Just stay out of my way, let me do what I came to do, and you’ll be fine. If you choose to continue […] well, I can practically feel what it would be like to squeeze the last breath out of you” (145). She slithers away, and Nestor looks for a way to secure his window.