He explains that there’s a new hurricane brewing in the Gulf called José that meteorologists predict will hit Mexico. When Esch asked him why he did it, he replied, “Why should China be the only one with teeth?” (60.)īefore Esch and Skeetah can embark on their mission, however, Daddy bursts into the house and asks them to help him retrieve boards from the attic wall above, visible from the house’s first floor since the ceiling caved in. While she slept, Skeetah would teach himself to “eat,” or suck on, razor blades. Before China gave birth to her litter, she remembers, the only time Skeetah spent apart from China was when China took naps. Skeetah asks Esch if she’ll help him with something that involves running in the woods behind their property, which surprises Esch, as Skeetah’s mind is usually on China. Esch notices that Skeetah has also shaved his Afro down to nothing. Inside, Skeetah tears out the house’s old linoleum floor to cover the dirt in the shed where China and her puppies live, which he believes is infested with parvo.

After Esch’s grandparents died, her parents began harvesting their house, built on the same property as their own, for useful items, such as beds and kitchenware.

Esch swats at the fleas coating her legs as she walks the path to Mother Lizbeth and Papa Joseph’s old house, which is ripe with decay.

Once chapter 4 summary