What Night Brings

The girls care for themselves after school, cooking and doing homework until their parents get home every day. They don’t speak to Delia or Eddie, only answering questions with one-word responses. Both girls are still in pain following the attack; Marci has blood in her urine for several days.

Again, Delia commands the girls to apologize to Eddie. When they refuse, she threatens to “pinch you so hard you’ll wish you had” (119). Both girls offer their arms for her to pinch but won’t apologize. Delia “gave us a dirty look” (119) but doesn’t hurt them.

Marci wishes Corin would have hurt Eddie more, though she feels guilty about saying it. Her religion has taught her to respect and obey her parents. Corin doesn’t buy into this view: “They brainwashed you into believing only the dad side of things” (120). 

After church the following Sunday, Marci asks Sister ‘Lizabeth, “if you lived in a house with a really awful and mean dad, what would you do?” (121). Sister ‘Lizabeth seems aware that Marci is talking about herself. She suggests praying for help. She also offers to help personally, though she isn’t sure how she can.

After church, Marci plays football alone, hoping to catch a glimpse of Raquel. She starts to question why God hasn’t answered her prayers: “If I’m supposed to have faith […] then how do I keep having it?” (123).

Eddie continues to hurt the girls without leaving marks. On a night when Delia is working late, he comes home to find Marci cooking spaghetti, which she knows he doesn’t like. When she suggests that he eat something else, he knocks her to the ground and begins kicking her with his work boots. Corin interferes, but Eddie knocks her across the room.

Eddie grabs the hot sauce from the stove and threatens to dump it on Marci before pouring it onto the ground instead. Eddie leaves. The girls know they can’t walk to Tommy’s in their condition, so they call him. Tommy takes the girls to his house. Delia calls. She is coming to pick them up. Before she arrives, Arlene tells the girls that the next time Eddie hurts them, they can call the cops.

Eddie is with Delia when she arrives. Tommy refuses to let the girls go with him. Delia takes Eddie’s side, dismissing Tommy. When Tommy doesn’t believe Eddie’s lies, Eddie gets angry and begins calling Tommy a homophobic slur. Tommy quickly changes the power dynamic: “Tommy slammed his fist into Eddie’s face. I saw my dad knocked down in one punch” (131). Eddie agrees to let the girls stay for the night but continues using the slur—the meaning of which Marci doesn’t know. Arlene remains uninvolved.

Delia picks the girls up the next morning. Tommy again offers to let them stay, but Delia tells him that Eddie has promised to stop abusing the girls. Again, she is on Eddie’s side.

Marci looks up “queer”–the slur Eddie used—in a dictionary at the library, but she doesn’t understand how it applies to Tommy. She connects it to church, because Eddie also refers to Tommy as a “holy roller.” Further, “There was the time I saw Uncle Tommy in the […] booth with Father Chacón. That seemed kind of queer” (135). This connection leads her to look up another definition: homosexual. Marci is confused because Tommy is masculine and married. Marci remembers confessing to Chacón that she was attracted to other girls, which he said was not a sin. She wonders if this is because Chacón is also homosexual. For the first time, Marci understands that there is a name and identity to her desire for other females.