The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

The next day in science class, Nestor invites Brandon to join his group with Talib and Maria Carmen, to everyone’s annoyance. The four work past their differences while discussing how to stop the tule vieja. Brandon reveals that he found his dad at home, frozen and wrapped in a large spider web. Before Brandon could release him, however, a wolverine attacked Brandon and quickly escaped with Brandon’s dad in its mouth. Brandon tried following, but a raven got in his way. However, Brandon did find out that the witch is hiding in the quarry. The eclipse is the next day, so the group doesn’t have much time to figure out a plan to stop the witch and get Brandon’s dad back.

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.