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dark. Matt found that if he lay perfectly still, his wounds didn’t hurt too much. María bounced around and occasionally hurt him, but he was afraid to scold her. She might get angry and leave.
    â€œCelia hangs charms over the doors to keep out monsters,” Matt told María.
    â€œDoes that work?”
    â€œOf course. They also keep out dead people who aren’t ready to stay in their graves.”
    â€œThere aren’t any charms here,” María said nervously.
    That thought had occurred to Matt too, but he didn’t want her to go away. “We don’t need charms in the Big House,” he explained. “There are too many people, and monsters hate crowds.”
    María’s interest drove Matt to greater and greater heights. He talked feverishly, unable to stop, and he ground his teeth from sheer nervousness. He’d never had so much attention in his life. Celia tried to listen to him, but she was usually too tired. María hung on his words as though her life depended on them.
    â€œDo you know about the chupacabras? ” Matt said.
    â€œWhat’s . . . a chupacabras? ” asked María. Her voice sounded a little high and breathless.
    â€œYou know. The goat sucker.”
    â€œIt sounds nasty.” María moved closer to him.
    â€œIt is! It’s got spikes down its back and claws and orange teeth, and it sucks blood. ”
    â€œYou’re kidding!”
    â€œCelia says it has a face of a man, only the eyes are black inside. Like empty holes,” said Matt.
    â€œUgh!”
    â€œIt likes goats best, but it’ll eat horses or cows—or a child if it’s really hungry.”
    María was pressed right up against him now. She put her arms around him and he gritted his teeth to keep from wincing with pain. He noticed that her hands were icy.
    â€œLast month Celia said it got a whole pen of chickens,” Matt said.
    â€œI heard about that. Steven said Illegals stole them.”
    â€œThat’s what they told everyone to keep them from running away out of sheer terror,” said Matt, echoing the words Celia had used. “But they really found the chickens in the desert without a drop of blood inside. They were blowing around like dry cantaloupe skins.”
    Matt was afraid of Steven and Emilia, but María was different. She was his size and she didn’t make him feel bad. What was it Rosa had called him? A “filthy clone.” Matt had no idea what that was, but he recognized an insult when he heard it. Rosa hated him, and so did the fierce man and the doctor. Even the two older children had changed once they knew what he was. Matt wanted to ask María about clones, but he was afraid she might hate him too if he reminded her.
    Meanwhile, he had discovered a wonderful power in repeating the stories Celia had told him. They had held him spellbound, and now they were impressing María so much that she was practically glued to him.
    â€œThe chupacabras isn’t the only thing out there,” Matt said grandly. “La Llorona walks in the night too.”
    María murmured something. Her face was pressed against his shirt, so it was hard to tell what she was saying.
    â€œLa Llorona drowned her children because she was angry at her boyfriend. And then she was sorry and drowned herself,” Matt said. “She went to heaven, and Saint Peter shouted, ‘You bad woman! You can’t come in here without your kids.’ She ran down to hell, but the Devil slammed the door in her face. Now she has to walk around all night, never sitting down, never sleeping. She cries, ‘Ooooo . . . Ooooo. Where are my babies?’ You can hear her when the wind blows. She comes to thewindow. ‘Ooooo . . . Ooooo. Where are my babies?’ She scratches the glass with her long fingernails—”
    â€œStop it!” shrieked María. “I told you to stop it! Don’t you ever