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The House of the Scorpion Summary
How It All Goes Down
The House of the Scorpion is a dark, twisted, but ultimately hopeful story about a young clone
named Matt who grows up in a dystopian world under the control of a drug lord. Oh, and this drug
lord happens to be the man from whom he was cloned. As it turns out, this guy, called El Patrón,
cloned our protagonist so that he might harvest Matt's organs to keep himself alive later in life.
Matt's early years are peaceful. He lives in seclusion with his caretaker Celia, who works for the
wealthy Alacrán family, of which El Patrón is the head. But when Matt is taken to live in the Big
House on the Alacrán estate in the country of Opium, Matt's life takes a dark turn. He faces a neverending series of hard-knocks: isolation, prejudice, imprisonment, violence, illness, and the threat of
death – all before the age of fourteen!
Matt fortunately finds some allies in the mostly mean Alacrán clan: his surrogate mother Celia, his
bodyguard-turned-mentor Tam Lin, and his friend-turned-love, María. With the help of these friends,
Matt eventually escapes from Opium (and death-by-organ harvesting) and travels to Aztlán, formerly
known as Mexico.
SPOILER ALERT!
After more abuse, hard work, friendships, and near death experiences,
Matt finally makes it to safety with María and her mother Esperanza, who is heavily involved in
politics and protests in Opium. At the end of the novel, Matt returns to Opium and takes over as the
leader of that country, now that El Patrón has died. The novel ends on a fairly optimistic note as the
intelligent and idealistic Matt sets out to undo the damage the ruthless El Patrón did during his rule.
The House of the Scorpion Part 1 Youth: 0 to 6 Summary
Chapter 1
In the Beginning
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As the book opens, we meet Eduardo who is working in your typical science lab, complete
with bubbling liquids and tubes and glass dishes.
Eduardo is trying to grow some cells, but he's worried that most of his batch are dying.
While he's working, Lisa tells him the cells are over a hundred years old.
Finally one cell survives and starts to grow into a person.
The baby that is being created in the lab is apparently being grown inside a cow.
Eduardo wonders and worries about the baby until the little boy is finally born. At that point,
he begins injecting the baby with something that will make him unintelligent.
But Lisa stops him and tells him that the Matteo Alacráns are always left alone.
Chapter 2
The Little House in the Poppy Fields
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As this chapter opens, a little boy named Matt is upset that his caretaker, Celia, is leaving for
work. After all, Matt has to stay alone in the house all day while Celia is gone.
(Side note: we assume that Matt is a Matteo Alacrán, from the last chapter.)
Outside, there are fields of white poppies. Matt sometimes sees people outside like he does
on TV, and he's curious about them.
But Celia won't let Matt go outside because it's dangerous.
Celia is a cook at a fancy house nearby and brings Matt delicious food every day.
While home by himself, Matt tries to talk to his stuffed animals and pictures, but he just gets
bored and lonely.
Then, two kids show up outside and see Matt through the window. He's scared and excited,
but the kids leave pretty quickly.
Matt doesn't tell Celia about the children.
We find out that Celia isn't Matt's real mother, but Matt thinks of her as his Mama anyway.
When a curious Matt asks, Celia tells him about the people at the "Big House." He's
interested in the kids there, and from Celia's information, Matt figures out that the two kids he
saw are named Steven and Emilia.
Steven's brothers are mean kids, especially Tom. Emilia's younger sister is named María.
Celia puts Matt to bed, but before he goes to sleep he practices things to say to Steven and
Emilia, hoping they'll play with him tomorrow.
Chapter 3
Property of the Alacrán Estate
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After Celia leaves for work, Matt waits nearly all day for the kids to show up again.
Finally Steven, Emilia, and María return to stare at Matt. He's obviously stuck inside, but he
gets some pictures to hold up to the window.
Steven and Emilia think the pictures are pretty funny and realize he can understand them.
Unfortunately, María is tired and cranky and starts to cry.
Steven and Emilia get annoyed and walk off, leaving María outside the house.
Matt gets upset by this, so he breaks the window with a pot to get to María.
The kids are stunned.
Matt asks if they want to play, and then he tries to get out the window, but he cuts himself
pretty badly on his foot. He passes out and wakes up later, when Steven and Emilia are
carrying him to the Big House.
When they arrive at the house, some maids begin to take care of Matt's foot. A woman
named Rosa asks him questions about who he is, and Emilia notices that Matt has
something written on the bottom of his foot. It says "Property of the Alacrán Estate."
Everyone is totally confused.
Steven's dad bursts in and starts yelling about how Matt is an animal and doesn't belong
there.
They scoop Matt up and dump him on the lawn outside.
Chapter 4
María
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Matt is now outside, lying on the grass, hoping Celia will come to get him soon. He's going to
be in big trouble.
Emilia and Steven start talking about Matt, and Steven tells Emilia that Matt is a clone.
They are both horrified. As it turns out, they think clones are animals.
Finally, a doctor shows up. He and Rosa take Matt inside again to operate on his foot.
The doctor and Rosa are rough with Matt, and they leave him alone in a dark room with
nothing but a bed and a bucket. Matt is terrified and starts to cry for Celia.
Later, María comes by and brings Matt dinner.
Matt starts to tell María a scary story that Celia told him about the chupacabra, or a "goat
sucker" monster, but this scares María, so Matt feels pretty bad.
It's gotten late, so María decides to stay in the room with Matt for the night. She's scared to
go outside because of monsters.
The next morning Rosa storms in and drags María out, shouting at her for hanging out with a
clone.
Chapter 5
Prison
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Matt is still stuck in the room, and he's at the mercy of Rosa, who mean and evil.
The doctor also comes to tend to Matt's wounds, and he and Rosa start to talk about El
Patrón. They both seem scared of him.
All Matt knows is that El Patrón is the boss of the Big House.
Rosa and the doctor, named Willum, are flirty but also argue a lot in front of Matt, which
confuses him.
The doctor then goes away for an extended period and makes Rosa angry. She takes it out
on Matt and treats him worse than ever.
Rosa then gets some gardeners to build Matt a pen filled with sawdust.
When the doctor comes back from wherever he went, he yells at Rosa for putting Matt in a
pen. The doctor is worried about keeping Matt alive and healthy.
Matt is scared and he's worried that Celia has forgotten about him.
Tom, who we've heard of before, shows up and taunts Matt one day, so Matt throws some
rotten fruit at him. Unfortunately, Tom comes back with a slingshot and shoots peas at Matt,
which really hurt.
Matt spends his time examining bugs and burying things in the sawdust.
Finally, Celia arrives with María. She's horrified about what has happened – she was told
Matt was with El Patrón.
She tells Matt she's working on a plan to rescue him.
But Matt's actually happy when his visitors leave because he wants to go back to playing
with his buried treasures in the sawdust. He is in shock – PTSD.
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The House of the Scorpion Part 2, Middle Age: 7 to 11 Summary
Chapter 6
El Patrón
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Matt gets woken up by Rosa screaming at him.
She drags him to a bathtub and washes him off frantically, after which he's hauled out into a
courtyard to meet the family.
When he gets outside, Matt is basically shell-shocked.
Celia is there along with the mysterious El Patrón and other members of the family.
Celia's mad. She lets Rosa have it and tells El Patrón, and everyone else, that Rosa has
been treating Matt like an animal.
Rosa tries to defend herself, but even her doctor boyfriend turns on her.
Furious, El Patrón has Rosa hauled off.
He calls Matt over, who likes El Patrón instantly. We also learn here that Matt is El Patrón's
clone.
El Patrón tells Matt about his childhood in Aztlán, which was then called Mexico.
Finally El Patrón falls asleep at which point Celia takes Matt to their new apartment home in
the Big House.
Matt is happy, but he won't talk, even when María visits him later and tries to persuade him
to chat with her.
Next we learn that El Patrón is going away to rest in his mountain vacation home. He's 140
years old so he tires easily.
Celia dresses Matt and they head off to tell El Patrón goodbye.
At the good-bye, Matt meets to the entire family, and El Patrón reveals to everyone that Matt
is his clone.
According to El Patrón, this means that Matt is super important, so anyone who harms him
will be punished. Everyone is so scared of El Patrón, they have no choice but to agree.
Then El Patrón gives Matt the gift of a bodyguard, whom he lets Matt pick.
Matt decides on a huge man with nice eyes named Tam Lin, who's Scottish.
Tam Lin quickly picks Matt up and carts him off.
Chapter 7
Teacher
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Poor Matt's still having problems dealing with society. He won't talk and he's reluctant to
leave Celia's apartment.
Matt develops a growing dislike for Tom, who is a bully.
But Matt slowly warms up to Tam Lin, who ends up being pretty cool.
After living in the pen for months on end, Matt has developed asthma.
María keeps visiting and trying to talk to Matt but he still refuses to respond.
Tam Lin calls Matt out on his rude behavior, telling him that he doesn't have to turn into
another El Patrón.
Eventually, Matt gets a tutor called Teacher who is overly chirpy. Teacher treats Matt like a
baby, which makes him so mad he practically explodes. He yells at her. (He speaks!)
Tam Lin rushes in to comfort the teacher, who is freaked out by Matt.
To celebrate, Tam Lin takes Matt out for a picnic.
Chapter 8
The Eejit in the Dry Field
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Matt's thrilled to be going out with Tam Lin. He's even more pumped about riding a horse.
But protective Tam Lin picks a slow horse, and Matt is disappointed.
Apparently months of not talking left him with lots to say, because Matt chatters nonstop.
While they're out, he and Tam Lin see Farm workers, who are harvesting opium. They notice
that the workers keep going without stopping for anything.
Matt sees a Farm worker lying on the ground and Tam Lin gets upset and says they have to
leave him there. It turns out the man is dead.
They finally stop their ride and Tam Lin tells the horse to drink.
The horse is called a Safe Horse, and it's programmed to do exactly what a rider tells it to
do. So it won't even drink unless it's told to do so.
They go on a hike and come to a pretty oasis, but Tam Lin tells Matt it's a secret and he can't
tell anyone about it.
Then he explains that Matt was cloned from El Patrón, which is why people don't like him:
he's different.
Matt also learns about eejits: people who are programmed to obey orders, just like the Safe
Horse.
As it turns out, the Farm worker who died did so because he was never told to stop working,
so he worked himself to death.
Horrified, Matt asks Tam Lin to stop telling him things – it's freaking him out!
Tam Lin takes Matt exploring instead, and teaches him about plants, animals, and survival
skills.
Matt asks Tam Lin to be his teacher, and he says Matt will do most of his learning from TV.
Chapter 9
The Secret Passage
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Matt's settling into a nice routine with Celia and Tam Lin, but he's constantly bothered by the
fact that he's a copy of another person.
He's also haunted by the dead eejit he saw.
María still visits, but now brings her annoying dog, Furball with her, which only serves as a
reminder to Matt that people think of him as an animal.
When he hears Tom and Steven's mother, Felicia, playing the piano, Matt becomes
interested in the instrument, and music in general. Felicia, we learn, is an alcoholic and
seems very depressed.
One day, Matt has to hide in a closet to listen to Felicia play. The closet is actually a secret
passage, and Matt starts to explore it. It goes all over the Big House and has peepholes into
various rooms.
Matt wanders towards the room of Mr. Alacrán's father, who has cancer and is refusing
treatment.
On another exploration of the Big House, Matt observes the doctor, Willum, hanging around
Felicia. The two seem to share a secret.
After a while, Matt starts to play the piano himself in secret, but Tam Lin discovers him and
decides to get him a proper piano teacher.
They find a music teacher who has gone deaf and really needs a job. His name is Mr. Ortega
and he agrees to teach Matt, even if Matt is a clone.
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Figuring that if he excels at school people will forget he's a clone, Matt throws himself into his
studies.
Chapter 10
The Cat with Nine Lives
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We jump forward three years in time. It's El Patrón's 143rd birthday.
Matt, who really cares about El Patrón, is sad to see him so aged.
Celia seems nervous about El Patrón's party and tells Matt to find her in the kitchen if
anything bad happens.
María is there for the party, but she's upset because she can't find Furball, so Tam Lin and
Matt reluctantly help her look for the dog.
Tom is there, too, and joins the search party, but Matt notices that Tom is only half-heartedly
looking. He suspects that Tom did something to Furball.
Eventually, after hearing the dog's cries, Matt finds Furball in the toilet, almost drowned. He's
horrified – Tom nearly killed the dog.
Matt kind of likes El Patrón's birthday, because it means that his friends are celebrating it as
his birthday, too. It's the one day of the year that the Alacráns have to pay attention and be
polite to him.
A creepy red-headed guy from California is also at the party. His name is Mr. MacGregor.
El Patrón arrives and appears to be in much better health. He thanks his new doctors for
their awesome treatment with million dollar checks.
He then proceeds to tell the story he tells all the time, about how his family was very poor
and how all of his eight siblings died before reaching adulthood.
Chapter 11
The Giving and Taking of Gifts
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Matt wanders around and checks out the seating arrangement at El Patrón's party. He takes
Tom's place card and sticks it at the baby table.
María catches him, so Matt tells her that he thinks Tom tried to drown Furball. She doesn't
believe him, though. Instead, she think's Matt's being mean.
El Patrón and Mr. Alacrán join the conversation, and El Patrón approves of Matt moving
Tom’s seat.
When María protests, El Patrón tells her to be quiet.
Still angry, she refuses to talk to Matt anymore. Tam Lin, too, isn't thrilled with how Matt is
acting.
Then Matt overhears a conversation among the adults. El Patrón is talking about things like
"fetal brain implants" and makes fun of his grandson, El Viejo, for not using modern medical
technology. It turns out El Viejo is the man with cancer, whom Matt stumbled upon while
roaming the secret passageway in Chapter 9.
Mr. Alacrán (who we now know is El Patrón's great-grandson) sticks up for his father, El
Viejo, and says that "implants" are "immoral."
Felicia tries to take Tom some food at the baby table, but Mr. Alacrán yells at her to sit down.
El Patrón then opens his presents. He has tons of them, of course.
Our other birthday boy, Matt, is then allowed to open his four presents, from Celia, Tam Lin,
Maria, and El Patrón.
María, is mad about Matt moving Tom’s seat and tries to take back her present, but her dad,
Senator Mendoza, tells her to give it to him.
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Channeling El Patrón, Matt orders María to bring him his gift.
Then he steps over the line and demands a birthday kiss. Everyone is horrified because he's
a clone, but El Patrón is delighted.
Even though he begins to regret his actions, Matt feels he can’t back down. María finally
kisses him, which makes Matt is horrified at his own behavior.
Later, back in his room, Matt opens María's gift, which is a box of taffy that she made herself.
We learn that María is a hoarder, and that her mother abandoned her when she was only
five. Celia says this is why María won't let things go and why she won't let Furball leave her
sight.
Feeling pretty guilty about Maria, Matt goes to sleep.
Chapter 12
The Thing on the Bed
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Felicia shows up the next morning out of nowhere, surprising Matt, who was studying.
She seems ill, but she tries to be nice to Matt. She tells him that María wants to see him and
that she's at the hospital.
When Matt goes to meet her, she's there, but she thought it was Matt's idea to meet there.
It's a set-up.
Tom walks in and takes them to see something awful. At first it sounds like a cat being
tortured, but when Tom opens the door, the three of them see a clone who is pale and tied
down and screeching.
We learn that the clone is Mr. MacGregor's.
Though horrified, Matt can't help but notice that the clone looks a lot like Tom, who gets mad
when Matt points this out.
Freaking out, María refuses to look at the clone or listen to anything about it.
Matt gets angry with her because she insisted on rescuing the creature when she thought it
was a cat, and now she wants nothing to do with it.
Chapter 13
The Lotus Pond
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Matt's terrified. He wants to talk with someone about what he saw, so he goes to Celia and
tells her what happened.
She's furious with Tom for showing them that, and she tells Matt that Tom is Mr.
MacGregor's son.
It turns out Felicia had an affair with Mr. MacGregor but, El Patrón had her brought back and
now she's basically a prisoner at the house.
Then Celia explains that all clones have their brains destroyed at birth. It's a law. But El
Patrón is so powerful that he disregarded the law and left Matt's brain intact.
Matt is the only clone in existence with a brain that hasn't been destroyed.
With a promise that he'll be safe as long as he lives, Celia assures Matt that no one will inject
him with any brain-destroying drugs.
As he drifts off to sleep, Matt wonders why MacGregor would want a brain-damaged clone.
MacGregor shows up a few days later and has a new liver and new kidneys.
María is going to boarding school soon, but she refuses to talk to Matt.
In an effort to force her to speak to him, Matt decides to kidnap Furball and leave María a
ransom note.
Matt finds Tom hanging around, torturing a frog. The two argue and Tom goes back inside.
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Then, Matt sneaks over to where the Mendozas are staying and prepares to snatch Furball.
He tries one last time to talk to María but she runs off.
So Matt gives Furball some meat to get the dog to come with him. He has some drugs to
make Furball fall asleep but he doesn't end up using them.
After leaving the ransom note, Matt takes Furball and leaves him near the pond for
safekeeping. His plan is to go back later to meet María there after she reads the ransom
note.
When he does head back, Matt is by met Tam Lin and another bodyguard named Daft
Donald. Maria’s father, Senator Mendoza is with them; furious, he tells Matt that Furball is
dead.
Matt declares that he loves María and wouldn't hurt her, which makes the Senator even
angrier.
Tam Lin is seriously disappointed in Matt, and doesn't believe Matt when he says that he
didn't kill Furball.
Tam Lin tells Matt that he has to leave with El Patrón.
Chapter 14
Celia's Story
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Matt is confined to his room. He's pretty miserable because he has a lot of regrets about
what he's done, and he's also frustrated that no one believes that he didn't kill Furball. Plus,
he's pretty sure Tom killed the dog, but he can't prove it.
Without Tam Lin, who has left with El Patrón, Matt's very lonely. Now that Tam Lin is gone,
he realizes what a friend he was.
He decides to make Tam Lin proud by making better decisions.
El Patrón found out about Tom's stunt at the hospital and banishes him to boarding school
for a year with no holidays.
From Celia, Matt learns that El Patrón won't ever let things go. He even keeps a stash of all
his presents in an underground tomb, where he wants to be buried like a pharaoh.
This is why El Patrón keeps Tom around, too, even though he hates him. Tom "belongs" to
him.
Celia's background:
She grew up in Aztlán in the same village as El Patrón (though she's not nearly as old, of
course).
She was poor and went to work in a factory, where she dreamed of going to the United
States someday.
Eventually, Celia found someone to take her over the border and made a run for it with a
group of other people fleeing Aztlán.
Unfortunately, the Farm Patrol caught her and the others. El Patrón came to see the
prisoners and recognized Celia's accent.
When he learned she was from his hometown, he decided to spare her life and hired her as
a cook. So now Celia belongs to El Patrón, and she can never escape him.
As a punishment for their crime, the people who crossed the border with Celia were turned
into eejits and now work the fields.
The House of the Scorpion Part 3, Old Age: 12 to 14 Summary
Chapter 15
A Starved Bird
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No one is around at the Big House, and Matt is getting bored.
To relieve that boredom, he goes to get a Safe Horse for a ride one day. The eejit who brings
out the horse is Rosa.
Matt is totally freaked out to discover that someone he once knew is now an eejit.
At the Oasis, he finds some packages and a note from Tam Lin. There's a trunk with
supplies like food and a knife and first aid, plus some books.
When Matt returns home, he learns that El Viejo is dead. Everyone returns home for the
funeral.
Even María returns, and she's holding hands with Tom.
After the funeral service, Celia and Matt go up to view the body. The priest is very angry out
and says Matt doesn't belong there since he doesn't have a soul.
María stands up for Matt and storms off with him in tow.
Matt is shocked that she seems to have forgiven him for the whole Furball incident.
The two of them go to the Music Room and then have to hide in the secret passage when
they hear people coming.
Chapter 16
Brother Wolf
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María and Matt make their way to El Patrón's surveillance room and sit down to talk.
After having read all about Saint Francis, who doesn't hold things against animals who are
just acting as nature dictates, María has forgiven Matt. Essentially, she is "forgiving" Matt
because he's just a clone and doesn't know how to behave.
She tells him to try to be good in the future.
Of course Matt just agrees with everything she says because loves her.
Tom and Felicia enter the surveillance room. They are looking for Matt and María.
As Matt and María eavesdrop, Felicia reveals something shocking to Tom: she killed Furball
and set Matt up to get back at him for being mean to Tom. María is shocked.
She and Matt sneak back out and run into Tam Lin, who is mad at them both for sneaking
away.
María's annoyed at Matt for letting her carry on about forgiveness and Saint Francis when he
didn't do anything.
María says goodbye to Matt and Tam Lin leads her away.
Chapter 17
The Eejit Pens
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After the funeral, everyone leaves, and Matt is left alone again.
Because María suggested it, Matt reads Saint Francis. He starts trying to relate to nature and
enjoys being outside.
He starts to read a book that Tam Lin left him, called A History of Opium, which details how
horrible Opium is.
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El Patrón and other drug lords made a deal with the United States government. They created
a country called Opium, which would solve the illegal immigration problem the US was
experiencing, and El Patrón promised not to sell drugs in the United States.
El Patrón, is the most powerful guy in Opium and he came up with the eejit system himself.
Matt gets angry when he reads about how evil El Patrón is and thinks that the author must
not really know El Patron. He's convinced that El Patrón has big plans for him.
Later, Matt goes to tour the water treatment plant and wanders off to see where all the
polluted water is dumped.
Matt is surprised to see that there are buildings in the toxic water wasteland. This is where
the eejits live. “Eejit Pens”
When he almost passes out from the stench, Matt he is “rescued” by two large men.
They think Matt's an illegal immigrant. These guys are members of the dreaded Farm Patrol.
When Matt explains who he is, they apologize. Their names are Hugh and Ralf, and they are
from the United Kingdom. They are murderers, which is how they came to work for El Patrón.
Only the most evil, work for El Patrón.
Hugh and Ralf tell Matt that Tam Lin is a terrorist.
According to these two, he tried to blow up the Prime Minister but ended up blowing up a
school bus with 20 children by accident.
Chapter 18
The Dragon Hoard
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Celia wakes Matt up abruptly and is panicking.
Matt had gone to bed right after returning from his misadventure at the eejit pens.
Before Celia rushes Matt outside and a bodyguard herds them to the hospital, she makes
him eat something. Apparently it's going to be a long night.
El Patrón has had a heart attack.
Matt begins to feel really sick and vomits all over a hospital orderly. The doctors rush him off
and he starts hallucinating.
When Matt wakes up, Tam Lin is there and says that El Patrón is stable.
The doctors placed a donor heart next to El Patrón's own heart to get it going again. The
actual donor heart was too small to work on him by itself.
Matt tells Tam Lin that he went to the eejit pens. Tam Lin gets mad – he thinks that's why
Matt got so sick.
Then Celia comes in and becomes hysterical over Matt.
Later, we learn that after his heart attack, El Patrón has changed. He's lost a lot of his
energy, so Matt spends a lot of time by El Patrón's bedside.
One day, Matt brings up Saint Francis and mentions how the historical figure gave all his
belongings away.
El Patrón perks up at that and starts yelling about how that's the worst idea ever.
Tam Lin finds this hilarious and tells Matt that El Patrón is like a dragon – he collects lots of
treasure.
Chapter 19
Coming of Age
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One day, as Matt sings for El Patrón, his voice cracks.
Matt is confused, but Celia explains that it just means that he's growing up. Celia and Tam
Lin throw Matt a little party to celebrate his coming of age.
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When Matt asks how old he is, Tam Lin starts ranting about how Matt was harvested and
how they're all treated like lab rats.
Celia calms him down and sends Matt to bed.
Matt knows that Tam Lin and Celia know something he doesn't, and have for a while. He
begins to put things together that night, and realizes what the clones are for: they are used
as involuntary organ donors.
Matt just can't believe he's been created only for his organs. After all, El Patrón left his mind
intact, unlike that of MacGregor's clone.
Then another thought occurs to him. El Patrón is driven by vanity. He likes to see Matt young
and smart because Matt is basically another version of him.
Matt starts to wonder about all the other El Patrón clones who are no longer around.
Celia comes to tell him good night and discovers that Matt is running a fever.
Tam Lin tells Matt that he's fourteen years old.
Chapter 20
Esperanza
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Matt wakes up feeling sick, but he gets out of bed anyway and goes to the Oasis.
He simply can't decide what to do. Should he run away? Should he believe that El Patrón
doesn't plan to cut him up for organs one day? Should he bank on El Patrón living longer?
Matt goes back to reading A History of Opium, hoping to learn more.
The book seems pretty angry about the eejits and how evil El Patrón is. So Matt decides to
see who the author is. He finds a picture and a biography of her in the back.
Her name is Esperanza Mendoza: she's Senator Mendoza's ex-wife, and María's mother.
(The Senator is María's father.)
Matt is shocked because María thinks her mother is dead.
That night, Matt comes down with an awful stomach flu.
Tam Lin tells Celia that her plan is going to kill Matt and they need a better one. Celia tells
him its under control.
Although Matt is too out of it to figure out what they are talking about, we can start to put the
pieces together.
Finally, Matt starts to feel better and goes back to visiting El Patrón, who is starting to have
memory troubles.
El Patrón starts calling Matt Felipe, and Matt learns that Felipe was El Patrón's son who died
eighty years ago.
Matt grows increasingly anxious to escape, but he knows he can't leave before Steven and
Emilia's wedding. He wants to say goodbye to Maria.
Chapter 21
Blood Wedding
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It's the day of the wedding, and the Big House is in total upheaval.
El Patrón had arranged Steven and Emilia's marriage years ago. Luckily, they actually like
each other. Steven's brother Benito had to marry Fani, the daughter of the Nigerian
president. Fani and Benito absolutely hate each other.
María arrives and she and Matt sneak off to catch up. María tells Matt all about what she's
been doing.
When Matt tries to convince María that he's not like the other clones, she's not convinced
and thinks that El Patrón may kill him soon for his heart.
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The conversation turns to Tom, and María and Matt start to argue about him.
El Patron has ordered that, María marry Tom in the future, and María is confident she'll be
able to change him.
Matt shows María A History of Opium, written by her mom, and tells María she should try to
contact her mother.
Matt watches the wedding from the secret passage, equipped with a telescope to look
through a peephole.
During the ceremony, El Patrón passes out and everyone rushes out, leaving Steven and
Emilia alone at the altar.
Chapter 22
Betrayal
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Matt panics. He's almost certain that El Patrón means to kill him for organs, but he's not
positive.
María comes to the passage, and tells him to stay there until she can come back for him.
She says they can steal her dad's hovercraft and pretend Matt is her eejit servant.
Matt waits and waits, feeling tired and thirsty until María finally comes back with some water
and an update: El Patrón is doing better.
After Matt changes into the eejit uniform María has brought him, the two make their way out
to the hovercraft.
Somewhere in the passage, they arrive at a point at which they can go no further without
giving a handprint scan. The scanner looks like a red scorpion.
María thinks it's El Patrón's secret escape passage, and she's scared that the scanner won't
recognize Matt as El Patrón, meaning they'll probably both die.
In a moment of now or never, the two declare their love for one another, and Matt touches
the scorpion. And…
The passage door opens! Matt and María run into a tunnel and finally emerge outside by the
hovercraft landing field.
Steven and Emilia are waiting for them on the hovercraft.
María tries to tell Emilia that their mother is alive, but Emilia already knows.
Steven and Emilia tell Matt that he has to go to the hospital, and they both tell María to stop
being so childish.
Matt is led off by the bodyguards as María screams for someone to help him.
The House of the Scorpion Part 4, Age 14 Summary
Chapter 23
Death
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Matt is terrified and knows he's about to die.
He is taken to El Patrón's bedside, where Celia waits with lots of bodyguards.
Talking to Matt, El Patrón explains that he's a good person for keeping Matt's brain intact. He
gave him a very nice life, and now he needs his heart.
El Patrón insists that he was owed the lives of all of his dead siblings. Because none of his
siblings lived to adulthood, he has a duty to live those lives for them. So feels like he's due
multiple "lifetimes," each in exchange for the siblings he's lost.
Celia tells him he's crazy and that El Viejo was the only decent person in the family because
he accepted death gracefully and with dignity. She also says Matt owes him nothing.
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Then Celia tells El Patron that she has been poisoning Matt since El Patrón had his first
heart attack. Not enough to kill Matt, but enough to make his heart unsuitable for a
transplant.
El Patrón’s heart begins to fail from the shock.
Everyone rushes off and Matt is left alone in the room until Mr. Alacrán and Tam Lin come in.
El Patrón is dead, they tell him. Mr. Alacrán says they no longer have a use for Matt and tells
Tam Lin to kill him.
Tam Lin agrees and hauls Matt off.
Matt tries to reason with him, but Tam Lin shuts him down.
He says that Celia has been turned into an eejit.
Tam Lin requests Daft Donald's help with killing Matt and Mr. Alacrán gives him the go
ahead.
Chapter 24
A Final Good-bye
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Daft Donald and Tam Lin tie Matt up with duct tape and throw him over a horse. Tam Lin
says he's going to dump Matt out by the eejit pens.
When they get far enough away, Tam Lin frees Matt and tells him it was all an act. Whew!
Matt starts yelling that he can't trust a terrorist.
Admitting that he's made lots of mistakes, Tam Lin promises Matt that he's really trying to
help him.
The two go to the Oasis, where Tam Lin explains that he put Celia in the stables with Rosa
and she is pretending to be an eejit.
Matt wants Tam Lin to go with him to Aztlán, but Tam Lin says he can't. He has to stay
behind in Opium and make up for the bad things he's done.
Tam Lin gives Matt last minute instructions: El Patrón kept life in Opium about a hundred
years in the past, so Aztlán is going to seem pretty weird and futuristic to Matt.
Matt is supposed to head to the Convent of Santa Clara, which is where María is going to
school. Tam Lin tells him to find Esperanza, too, since she's a good ally to have.
Then, Tam Lin promises to take care of Celia. The two say goodbye and Matt sets off on his
own.
Chapter 25
The Farm Patrol
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In shock, Matt spends an uneasy night outside, and then begins his journey at dawn.
Matt has to do some serious rock climbing, but presses on towards the border. As he travels,
he Matt looks back at Opium a lot.
Matt spends another night outside and the next day, he starts to hear strange sounds. It's the
sounds of an urban area: he must be getting closer to Aztlán.
Matt waits until dark and makes a run for the border, when he sees a group of men run
across the border into Opium, but the Farm Patrol spot him.
A Farm Patrolman grabs Matt's backpack, but Matt shrugs out of it and flings himself over
the border, where he lands in an oily black puddle.
Welcome to Aztlán.
The House of the Scorpion Part 5, La Vida Nueva Summary
Chapter 26
The Lost Boys
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The border guards are super impressed by Matt's narrow escape. Matt tells them his name is
Matt Ortega.
The guards, known as "Keepers," take Matt to a building and get him some clothes and food.
Matt tells them the story Tam Lin came up with: Matt's parents were taken by the Farm
Patrol and he turned back to Aztlán since he was scared.
He tells them he wants to go to San Luis.
After figuring out that Matt doesn't have any useful job skills, a Keeper named Raúl decides
to send him to a plankton factory in San Luis since that's where he wants to go.
Matt figures that sounds fine – he can escape once he hits San Luis and go find María.
Then, Matt meets the other boys staying with the Keepers. They're playing a video game,
which totally confuses Matt. (Remember the thing about keeping Opium a hundred years in
the past?)
After Raúl tells the boys to give Matt some space, Matt watches as they go over an evening
lesson where Raúl recites things like "Work is freedom. Freedom is work."
It's helpful here to know that Raúl is acting and speaking in a way that identifies him as a
communist. Basically, communists believe that everyone should work hard and share
everything. Unfortunately, a lot of communist governments, such as the Soviet Union, turned
into dictatorships where people were controlled by the State.
When Raúl leaves, the other boys start to talk to Matt.
A big guy named Chacho has a bad attitude. He tells Matt that the Keepers are going to
"work his butt off" tomorrow. It turns out Chacho and a little boy named Fidelito, who gets
picked on by the other boys, are headed for San Luis with Matt.
Fidelito says that he's hungry and that you only get fed if you "produce enough work."
Using some of El Patrón's attention-getting techniques, Matt tells everyone his fake story of
crossing the border with his parents.
Chacho reveals that this place is an orphanage and that all the boys have lost their parents,
many of them to the Farm Patrol.
Because the boys are orphans, they basically "belong" to the state and are forced to work.
Matt knows what that feels like ("belonging" to someone).
Chapter 27
A Five-Legged Horse
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At the orphanage, Matt floats around to different groups and learns the ropes.
All the orphans call themselves the Lost Boys. The Lost Girls are in a different building.
Everyone has it in for the Keepers, though Matt thinks Raúl is nice.
Everyone here calls Opium "Dreamland."
Matt helps Fidelito with his work so that he can eat, and Fidelito latches onto Matt.
Chacho, continuing to show Matt the ropes, tells him that everyone gets assigned a job by
the Keepers, whether they like it or not.
We also learn that Chacho is secretly working on making a guitar, because his dad used to
make them. Chacho insists that his dad is living in the United States and is going to send for
him soon. Matt's not so sure.
The day drags on and it's finally time for bed. When Raúl comes in to say goodnight, Fidelito
moons him. Raúl just laughs.
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Their "bedtime" story is about why individualism is a "five-legged horse." They believe that
individualism causes people to just go in circles. Everyone should pull together and be the
same.
Matt speaks up and says that not letting people be individuals is about the same as putting a
computer chip in their brain.
Everyone finds this shocking, but Chacho just finds it hysterical.
Raúl is horrified and tells Matt he's an aristocrat. (Aristocrats do not know the value of hard
work.)
Unlike Raúl, the boys all think Matt is hard core. Matt, on the other hand, is really confused
about what just happened.
Matt goes to bed and begins to freak out. He knows no one can ever find out he's El Patrón's
clone, because it seems like everyone at the orphanage hates "Dreamland."
They call El Patrón a vampire, and the eejits are called "crots" or zombies.
Matt goes to sleep missing Celia and Tam Lin and thinking of María.
Chapter 28
The Plankton Factory
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Raúl begins the day with an inspirational pep talk.
Matt is put to work making Vitamin B pills and is given a double quota. He ends up not
getting much food for breakfast, but Chacho tells the bigger boys to give Matt some more
food.
Later that day, Fidelito, Chacho, and Matt head off to San Luis, and they have to make
sandals on the trip there.
Matt is beginning to think the Keepers are power-hungry & crazy.
Poor Fidelito throws up in the hovercraft on the way to San Luis.
Finally they land. Unfortunately, outside it smells like rotting fish, so Matt throws up, too.
The pilot takes the boys inside and the Keepers at the plankton factory call Matt the
"aristocrat." They must have already heard about him.
The boys then have to go clean the vomit out of the hovercraft. When that's done, they go
talk to the head Keeper, Carlos.
Carlos rambles on about how great plankton is. It grows in the sea, and the plant
manufactures it to be turned into food for humans.
Matt asks where San Luis is, but Carlos tells him to shut up. Apparently meanness isn't
confined to Opium.
The plant is in the middle of nowhere and is surrounded by salt hills leftover from the
plankton manufacturing process.
Time for lunch. They eat plankton (big surprise) and Matt decides that it's gross.
In the distance, Matt spies the Gulf of California. He learns that the Gulf is where Opium gets
its water from.
After lunch, Chacho, Fidelito, and Matt are put to work tending brine shrimp tanks.
The boys chat and Fidelito explains how he got there.
He used to live in the Yucatan peninsula with his grandmother, he tells them, but a hurricane
destroyed their home. So the two were sent to a refugee camp, where they were basically
prisoners of the state.
In an effort to escape, Fidelito and his grandma tried to cross the border. Sadly, his grandma
didn't make it and Fidelito was picked up by the Keepers.
Chacho explains that most of Aztlán is okay, but the Keepers are crazy, and if you end up
with the state in charge of you, you're pretty much a prisoner.
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Carlos comes up and scolds the boys for not working. Matt foolishly talks back, and they all
lose dinner privileges.
Matt apologizes, but Fidelito and Chacho don't mind: they're sticking with him because he's
cool.
Chapter 29
Washing a Dusty Mind
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Matt asks why everyone calls him the aristocrat.
Chacho says it's because of how he talks, his manners, and how he seems to be thinking all
the time.
Matt gets worried because he's always copied El Patrón, who was over one hundred years
behind the times.
At dinner, Chacho stares down a kid, and gets some of his food for Fidelito.
Before bed, another Keeper named Jorge gives everyone an inspirational lesson.
Of course Matt thinks the lessons are strange, but he keeps his mouth shut this time.
Poor Matt gets called on to answer a question, but he gets it wrong.
The boys then start something called "self-criticism," which is where everyone goes around
and confesses to a wrongdoing.
A kid with bad acne named Ton-Ton goes first, and he says he thought about stealing a
pancake.
Ton-Ton then gets to name his own punishment: he decides he should have to recite some
principles.
Now it's Matt's turn. He says he hasn't done anything wrong. Fidelito, however, confesses to
throwing up in the hovercraft.
When Matt tries to stand up for him, Jorge gets everyone to turn on Matt. All the boys except
Chacho and Fidelito accuse Matt of stupid things.
Even though he's still got some allies, Matt is really upset because he wanted to be accepted
by boys his age.
But then Matt remembers the people who care about him: Celia, Tam Lin, and María, And he
remembers El Patrón, who gave him a will to live.
Matt decides he can triumph over his bad situation.
Chapter 30
When the Whales Lost Their Legs
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Matt starts getting used to his new existence at the plankton factory. He and the other two
boys still work at the shrimp tanks all day.
One day, Chacho and Matt go investigate something in the distance and discover a huge pit
filled with giant bones.
Chacho notices a human skull in the pit. The boys decide to leave before someone falls in.
Fidelito tells the older boys that the bones are whale bones.
Matt also starts getting used to having all the boys insult him every night during "selfcriticism."
One night, though, Jorge turns on Ton-Ton after Matt refuses to confess anything. He
accuses Ton-Ton of stealing and then beats him up as punishment.
Matt knows Jorge is doing this to intimidate him. After all, the beating is so bad that Ton-Ton
has to be taken to the infirmary when Jorge is done. But Matt still refuses to confess to doing
something wrong.
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So then Jorge threatens to beat Matt.
Matt talks back, and Fidelito finally jumps in and tells about stuff Matt did (or did he?).
Finally, Matt decides to confess to things he never did, such as dropping soap and throwing
away porridge. Jorge takes it upon himself to beat Matt for his assorted "crimes."
When Jorge leaves, all the boys surround Matt and call him a hero for standing up to Jorge.
An older boy named Flaco says Jorge really crossed the line and will get into trouble.
Matt is happy that the other boys like and accept him. Matt is then taken to the infirmary
because of the wounds from his beating.
Chapter 31
Ton-Ton
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The next day, Matt is recovering in the infirmary with Ton-Ton.
Ton-Ton's friend Luna comes to visit. Luna is actually training to be a Keeper. He says that
everyone eventually trains to be a Keeper.
Matt doesn't understand this, because there aren't enough Keeper positions for the hundreds
of boys.
Poor Ton-Ton still can't figure out why Jorge beat him, so Matt distracts him by asking what
the Keeper's quarters are like. Ton-Ton cleans these rooms so he gets to see inside.
Matt learns from Ton-Ton that the Keepers get high every night.
This is great news for Matt since it gives him better odds at escaping at night, when the
Keepers are drugged/high.
Ton-Ton also grew up in San Luis and tells Matt all about it.
Matt really wants to tell Ton-Ton to get a clue and stop being loyal to the Keepers, but he
holds his tongue.
He finally gets out of bed and makes an unfortunate discovery: he has super bad acne. Luna
says the plankton causes it for some reason.
The next day, Jorge makes Ton-Ton and Matt go back to work. Matt plans his escape and
tries to figure out how Chacho and Fidelito can come with him.
Matt now needs more information: he arranges for Chacho, Fidelito, and him to intercept, or
stop, Ton-Ton on his way in from work. He wants to get more news from Ton-Ton to help
with his escape plans.
Suspicious at first, Ton-Ton is assured by Matt that they want to be friends with him.
Ton-Ton's backstory:
His parents both disappeared over the border. Ton-Ton tried to run, too, and was nearly
killed by the Farm Patrol, but Jorge rescued him. He's got a grandmother in San Luis, but
Jorge convinced him to stay at the orphanage to become a Keeper.
After he tells this story, the boys head back to the compound. Ton-Ton lets Fidelito ride with
him in the shrimp harvester that he drives, but Matt and Chacho have to walk.
Matt tells Chacho about Celia, explaining that she's his mother. Mentioning Celia makes Matt
desperately homesick and he nearly cries.
Chacho understands and leaves Matt alone, giving him time to pull himself together
Chapter 32
Found Out
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Jorge criticizes Matt yet again that night, and then he turns on Fidelito. Matt tries to step in
on Fidelito's behalf, but Jorge won't let up and goes to beat Fidelito.
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So Matt throws himself on Jorge and Chacho joins in. Soon all the boys are surrounding
them and shouting.
Matt stops himself and then yanks Chacho off of Jorge.
Jorge scrambles outside and comes back with all twenty Keepers.
The boys yell that Jorge nearly killed Fidelito, which makes Carlos pause, but Jorge says
they're lying.
The Keepers try to leave, but Flaco gets everyone to surround the doors and trap them.
There are two hundred boys and the Keepers are nervous. They're out-numbered ten-toone.
Jorge then spills the beans about Matt: he saw Matt's "Property of the Alacrán Estate" tattoo
on his foot when he was in the infirmary.
Everyone is horrified – even more so when Jorge accuses Matt of being an eejit.
Flaco, checking Matt's foot, confirms Jorge's story, but Ton-Ton pipes up and says that Matt
isn't a bad person and that anyone could get trapped in Dreamland.
Ton-Ton then tells all the boys that their parents are crots, or zombies, too, and they were
just unlucky. Jorge tells Ton-Ton to shut up.
The Keepers then haul Chacho and Matt out, lock them in a dark closet, and tape their
mouths shut.
Chapter 33
The Boneyard
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At dawn, some Keepers, led by Jorge, come to get Chacho and Matt.
They take the two boys out to the boneyard (the giant pit filled with whale bones). Their
hands and feet are bound with tape. The Keepers throw the boys into the pit and leave them
there.
Frantic, Matt and Chacho get to work on trying to use the bones to cut their hands and feet
free, but the bones keep shifting and they have to be careful not to sink further into the pit.
As if the situation weren't bad enough, Chacho discovers that there are bats living in the pit
and they start crawling on Matt and Chacho.
After panicking because of the bats, Chaco is calmed by Matt. Matt refuses to believe that
he's going to die in a pit like this.
Finally Chacho and Matt get their hands free. Both of them are super thirsty.
When he tells Chaco about living in Opium with his parents, Celia and Tam Lin, Matt assures
Chacho that not everyone there is an eejit, but that everyone is definitely a prisoner.
Chacho is hopeful that his father is a prisoner – not an eejit.
Then a thunderstorm rolls in, giving the boys a chance to get a drink of rainwater.
Unfortunately, the storm totally freaks out the bats and they start crawling all over Chacho
and Matt, looking for warmth.
Matt frees his feet and very slowly makes his way out of the pit.
Chacho, however, is still in the pit and has passed out from exhaustion.
Chapter 34
The Shrimp Harvester
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Matt is freezing and exhausted. He keeps yelling to Chacho, but Chacho doesn't answer.
Then, thankfully, Ton-Ton and Fidelito drive up in the shrimp harvester. Matt is beyond
relieved to see them.
Ton-Ton uses the harvester to get Chacho out of the pit.
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When Chaco wakes up, Ton-Ton gives him and Matt strawberry soda to drink. The "soda"
sounds an awful lot like Gatorade from the way Ton-Ton describes it.
Ton-Ton says all four of them are going to make a run for it to San Luis.
There was an uprising at the compound and the boys have control. Ton-Ton drugged the
Keepers and the boys barricaded them in their rooms.
Now Flaco's in charge, and he's going to wait until the supply hovercraft arrives. Then he'll
tell people in charge what happened.
But Ton-Ton says he doesn't trust headquarters and thinks it's best to run while they can, so
they all ride in the shrimp harvester to San Luis.
Unfortunately, the harvester is solar powered, and it gets dark when they are still three miles
outside of San Luis.
Ton-Ton stays with Chacho, who can't walk, while Matt and Fidelito head towards San Luis
to find help.
Chapter 35
El Día de los Muertos
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Fidelito pesters Matt with questions the entire way to San Luis.
The boys get closer to the Colorado River, which is severely polluted. A tentacle creeps out
of the river. Apparently there are mutant creatures living in it and it smells terrible.
Fidelito is scared.
Poor Matt has an asthma attack from all that pollution and Fidelito panics and runs for help.
Finally someone arrives with an inhaler. It's an elderly man and woman. The woman calls the
man "Guapo," or handsome. Her name is Consuela.
Fidelito did an awesome job getting help. The elderly pair have already sent an ambulance
for Chacho and Ton-Ton. Now the two take Matt and Fidelito into the town, where they head
towards the cemetery.
There's a party going on there, they explain – it's the Day of the Dead.
Matt has never heard of it. Celia celebrated every holiday, it seems, but this one.
He catches a whiff of something that reminds him strongly of Felicia. It turns out to be
whisky.
Matt gets desperately homesick at the party.
Consuela and Guapo say they'll take the boys to the convent of Santa Clara hospital to see
Chacho. Chacho has been taken to the convent where María lives.
She tells them they'll have to wear Halloween masks to disguise themselves in case there
are Keepers around.
Matt doesn't like wearing a mask at all.
Chapter 36
The Castle on the Hill
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Matt, Fidelito, and Guapo pile into a small hover car for the ride to the hospital.
Dazed by all the people and the holographic ads everywhere, he's then totally shocked when
he sees someone dressed up in an El Patrón costume. What's going on here?
They arrive at the convent, and Matt's nervous about seeing María.
He and Fidelito wander around until a nurse spots them and takes them to Chacho. When
they get to the room, they discover two Keepers there trying to take Chacho and Ton-Ton
away.
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One of the nurses, Sister Inéz, protests, but the Keepers just brush her off. The Keepers are
Jorge and Carlos, who get into a fight with Matt as soon as they see him. The nuns are
horrified.
Finally a woman arrives and yells at everyone to stop.
Her name is Dona Esperanza – María's mom.
Esperanza tells everyone to shut up and asks Ton-Ton to explain the situation.
Jorge denies everything.
Esperanza asks him about the drugs at the compound. Turns out the Keepers are smuggling
drugs into Aztlán. Esperanza has Jorge and Carlos hauled out for drug tests.
After they leave, she tells everyone she's glad: the authorities have been trying to get proof
of the Keeper's drug trafficking activities for ages and never could manage it.
María bursts in and flings herself at Matt with glee.
Chapter 37
Homecoming
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A few days have gone by, and Matt is recovering in the hospital along with Chacho, who isn't
doing so great. María visits Matt every day.
Esperanza comes to visit with María one day, and she tells Matt that something is wrong in
Opium.
No one has heard a peep from anyone in Opium since the day El Patrón died.
María is worried about her father and Emilia, so she starts to cry.
We find out that Opium has been in lockdown for three months.
Esperanza then tells Matt her plan. She wants Matt to go back into Opium and use his El
Patrón DNA to override the security system and get it to allow a hovercraft to land there.
Esperanza admits, it's a gamble: Mr. Alacrán could have changed the security codes after El
Patrón's death.
Worried about his friends in Opium, Matt readily agrees to the plan, even though he runs the
risk of getting blown up.
Esperanza then tells Matt some good news. According to the law, he's now the "real" El
Patrón, since the other one is dead.
This means that Matt is the new leader of Opium and he's a human under the law now.
Esperanza says she'll back Matt ruling Opium, but only if he promises to dismantle it.
Matt thinks Esperanza is kind of ruthless and cares more about politics than her kid, but he,
too, wants Opium destroyed, so he agrees to her plans.
Now we jump forward in time, and Matt is flying to Opium with some soldiers.
He successfully gets past the security and the hovercraft lands without a problem. The pilot
offers Matt a gun, but Matt refuses.
He goes out alone and there is no one around, so he heads for the house, where he hears
the piano playing.
It's not Felicia though – it's Mr. Ortega.
When Matt goes to greet his old teacher, Mr. Ortega flees in terror. Matt guesses everyone
thought he was dead.
He starts to play the piano, and a bit later, Celia comes in and hugs him and cries.
Matt asks about Tam Lin and Celia tells Matt to come with her.
They go to the kitchen and sit down at a table with Daft Donald, who is mute, and Mr.
Ortega, who is deaf.
The two men are communicating through laptops. They type out conversations on the
screen.
Celia tells Matt they have a long story to tell him.
Chapter 38
The House of Eternity
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Celia, Daft Donald, and Mr. Ortega all tell the story of what happened the night Matt left.
That night, Tam Lin and everyone else were called to El Patrón's wake. Celia was in the
stables because she was pretending to be an eejit, and Mr. Ortega was in his room because
everyone forgot to come get him.
El Patrón's funeral was over-the-top. He was in a gold coffin that even six bodyguards had
trouble lifting.
Daft Donald says that there was a giant picture of a young El Patrón on the coffin lid. The
picture looked just like Matt. A choir of eejit children sang a song as the coffin was carried in.
After the funeral service, the eejits and the Farm Patrol were sent away, and the wake
started. At the wake, everyone talked about how they hated El Patrón and are glad he finally
died.
Tam Lin then brought in some special wine, meant for El Patrón's 150th birthday.
Mr. Alacrán said they should all drink to El Patrón's death. Tam Lin went up to Daft Donald
and told him not to drink the wine – he had a bad feeling about it.
Everyone took a sip of the wine, and then everyone in the room fell to the ground.
They were all dead.
The wine was poisoned by El Patrón who wanted to go on controlling everyone after his
death.
When he hears this story, Matt is completely horrified that Tam Lin is dead too.
Celia explains that Tam Lin wanted to atone for his past and he did what he had to do to
ensure that no other Alacráns would take over Opium. Tam Lin wanted to use this as a
chance to free the eejits.
Daft Donald explains that he laid out the bodies, crying the entire time.
He then blew up the entrance to where the funeral was happening and sealed it off, creating
a tomb.
Furious with Tam Lin for dying, Matt runs out to the stables and gets a horse from Rosa.
As he rides out, he watches the eejits, still working the fields.
Matt is totally drained and he doesn't know what to do without Tam Lin, so he goes to the
Oasis to find the old note Tam Lin left him years ago.
Matt decides that he'll do what he can to fix Opium and free the eejits, and he decides to
invite his new friends, Chacho, Ton-Ton, and Fidelito to live with him.
As the sun sets, Matt notices a strange spot in the side of a cliff. It's a door.
Matt opens it and goes inside with a flashlight. It's part of the underground passages that
make up El Patrón's tomb.
There's gold on the floor and statues along the walls. Matt backs out, feeling ill, and still
angry at Tam Lin.
He spends the night out at the Oasis, pondering his future.
He makes plans for breaking up the Opium empire and hears Tam Lin's voice in his mind
telling him that he can do it. Matt agrees.