The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez

by Adrianna Cuevas

  “Then we free them,” Maria Carmen adds.

  “And finally, we miraculously beat the tule vieja.”

  “Hopefully without getting bitten in the process,” Talib says.

  “All before the eclipse. Which is tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like a soup sandwich.” Brandon chuckles.

  I look at Brandon. I thought Dad and I were the only ones who talked about soup sandwiches.

  “Excuse me, a what?” Maria Carmen asks.

  “He means that it sounds impossible,” I explain. “Like trying to eat a soup sandwich.”

  Talib throws his hands in the air. “Well, I’ve completely lost my appetite.”

  Later that night, while Maria Carmen is cocooned in her bed and Brandon snores on the floor, Talib grabs my sketchbook and flips through the pages of deer, coyote, and raven drawings. He stops when he gets to my Days in New Haven page.

  “What’s this?” he asks.

  “I keep track of how many days I’ve lived in each of the places the Army has moved us.”

  Talib flips back and looks at the tick marks for Fort Hood, Fort Campbell, Fort Lewis, Fort Carson, and Fort Benning.

  “You mark every single day?”

  I sigh. “Yeah, it pretty much ends up being a countdown. We always move again.”

  Talib closes the sketchbook and slides it over to me. “Well, I hope you get to make a million marks for New Haven,” he says, rolling over and shoving Maria Carmen’s spare pillow under his head.

  I turn onto my back and stare at the ceiling. Even with a vicious tule vieja roaming the woods and Abuela gone, I can’t help but agree.

  I’ve done the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in all our moves. I’ve let New Haven become home.

  CHAPTER 23

  I CAN’T SLEEP. I want to email Dad, but I know I can’t. I don’t even know what I could possibly say without completely destroying Mom’s Always Be Positive, Always Be Happy rule. But I just want to talk to my dad.

  I drag my backpack over to where I’m lying on Maria Carmen’s floor. I rummage through it, trying to see if Talib packed me a hoodie, when I grab something unexpected: Dad’s animal encyclopedia.

  I flip through the pages, looking over Dad’s drawings of hawks, wild hogs, and armadillos. A note scrawled next to the hog says, Mami told me that hogs only like jokes in Spanish. They don’t think English jokes are funny. At all.

  I run my hand over the page, smiling at the other notes: Armadillos dare one another to take on cars. Hummingbirds are actually scared of heights. Most bats really wish they were house cats.

  I wish Abuela had told Dad how to defeat a tule vieja who could turn into a spider, a snake, and a wolverine. That would be good to find in the encyclopedia right now.

  Thoughts of spiderwebs and wolverine claws swirl in my head until my eyelids become heavy. I’m about to doze off when I feel tight pressure on my chest.

  My eyes slam open as I gasp for air. I see a large brown snake curling around my torso. Her head makes its way to my chest, and she flicks my chin with her tongue.

  “Your family is gone,” she hisses. “And here you are, my dear, with no home. You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”

  I’m about to pass out when the snake uncoils from my body and slithers to the window. She slides out into the night, her slick skin gleaming in the moonlight.

  My eyes open again. I sit up and catch my breath.

  It was just a dream.

  The air still stings my lungs. Morning light streams through Maria Carmen’s bedroom window, which is hanging open. I look over to her bed and find it empty. I’m the only one lying on the floor. Talib and Brandon are gone, too.

  Did everyone wake up before me?

  I slip my backpack over my shoulders and start to head downstairs.

  “No! Let me go!”

  I hear a shout outside and rush to the window. The wild-haired woman from last night is dragging Brandon to the edge of the woods. He struggles against her, but she twists his arms behind his back into submission, her long fingernails digging into his skin.

  I cram my feet into my shoes and crawl out of Maria Carmen’s window, sliding down the shingles and jumping to the ground. I race through the woods, following Brandon’s shouts.

  Suddenly, I’m hit in the stomach and fall to the ground. I try to suck in a breath and struggle to fill my lungs. The tule vieja stands above me, her eyes rimmed with red, her skin a mottled gray. Veins in her forearms pop as she grips a twisted oak branch.

  I kick my legs out and smack her in the knee, making her double over and drop the large stick in her hands. I rush over to Brandon, lying on the ground, holding his arm.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  Brandon grunts. “Not the wake-up call I was looking for.”

  The tule vieja pounds her fists on the ground. A scream erupts from deep in her throat as fur sprouts from her body. I hear the bones in her fingers crack as long claws shoot from her fingernails.

  Brandon grabs a large rock next to him and launches it at the tule vieja. “It’s too early in the morning for this!” he groans.

  The rock smacks the tule vieja between the eyes, then a small trickle of blood runs down her wolverine snout. She snarls and takes off toward the quarry. Her paws thud against the dirt as she disappears between the trees.

  “Where are Talib and Maria Carmen?” I ask Brandon.

  “I think she took them.” His voice quivers.

  My stomach turns over. I swallow hard.

  I stand and help Brandon up. “I woke up when I felt a spider on my face,” he says.

  “Did she bite you?” I ask, my eyes searching Brandon for signs of a welt.

  Brandon shakes his head. “Talib was right. A shoe works. Except she turned into a snake before I could get her. She wrapped around me and slid me out the window.” Brandon hunches over, hands on his knees. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared. We’ve got to get her, Nestor.”

  I stretch my back and catch my breath. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do,” I tell him, hiking my backpack up on my shoulders. “Let’s go.”

  We jog into the woods. I look up at the sky, the sun rising higher. Somewhere in the bright sky, the moon is starting its march toward the sun. I’m not sure how long we have until the eclipse. As we reach the edge of the woods, I look down at the dry creek between them and the quarry. The reality of what I’m about to face catches up with me. All I’ve got are the shoes on my feet and a sixth grader with questionable hunting skills next to me. That’s all we’ve got against a shape-shifting witch.

  Brandon and I slide down to the dry creek bed, dirt pouring into our shoes, and scramble up the other side. I jog to the edge of the quarry, but each step is a marathon. My joints crack at the slightest movement, and my muscles tremble.

  Before us is an enormous pit carved out of limestone. Steep, pale cliffs with claw marks left by earthmoving machines lead down to a dirt floor. A single cave has been dug into the cliff straight in front of us, its black interior hiding whatever is inside. Large piles of rocks fill the quarry floor, creating a maze. Brandon groans next to me.

  Mentally, I run through what we have to do. Find Abuela, Talib, Maria Carmen, and Brandon’s dad. Stop the tule vieja. Avoid getting bitten by wolverines or snakes.

  No problem.

  “Nestor, wait,” Brandon says next to me. His hand on my shoulder makes me jump.

  “What?”

  “I think the cavalry has arrived.”

  CHAPTER 24

  I TURN AND SEE A SWARM OF ANIMALS behind us. Deer, coyote, ravens, squirrels. Even an armadillo and some foxes. Lumbering behind the crowd of animals is a large black bear.

  “Let’s do this. I’m so ready to poop on a witch!” Cuervito squawks, hopping up and down on the ground.

  Chela walks forward and lowers her head toward me. “We’re here to help, Nestor. Just tell us what to do.”

  I look at Brandon, and he shrugs. “Go ahead. Do your thi
ng,” he says.

  We gather at the edge of the quarry cliff with our animal army. “Where do you think they are?” Val asks.

  I bite my lip and think. “Well, if it were me, I’d hide everybody in that cave. So that’s probably the first place we should check.”

  “On it,” says Cuervito, taking off into the yellowing sky. An orange haze has settled in the air as the moon moves closer to the sun.

  Brandon nudges my arm with his elbow. “We’re gonna have to go down there, you know. We can use the piles of rocks for cover, but we have to make sure we maintain visibility with each other and signal when we’ve checked for safety.”

  I stare at Brandon, and he grins sheepishly. I think Dad would actually like him.

  “Sounds good,” I tell him. Reaching into my backpack, I pull out Dad’s collapsible baton. With one swift flick of a wrist, it becomes a metal rod that could stop a charging wolverine. “Take this,” I say, handing the baton to Brandon.

  I pull out Dad’s heavy-duty flashlight and grip it in my hand, the metal cold against my skin. “It’ll be dark in the cave, so we’ll need this.”

  Brandon looks at the sun and squints. The burnt orange sky has fooled the crickets into thinking dusk is coming, and their chirping fills the air. The eclipse is getting closer. “It’s gonna be dark out here soon. We’d better hurry.”

  Cuervito returns and lands at my feet. “They’re in the cave,” he says.

  “Any sign of the tule vieja?” I ask.

  “No. But I got some white lightning brewing for her when she does show up.”

  I look at the animals around us. The black bear is pawing his huge claws in the dirt. The armadillo is rolled into a tight ball, the two foxes pushing him around. The squirrels are shoving acorns into their cheeks and spitting them at Chela. Without these animals, it would just be me and Brandon. And if I couldn’t understand them, we’d be lost.

  Maybe our chances aren’t so bad after all.

  “All right. Let’s do this,” I tell them.

  We circle the edge of the quarry and find a sloping hill that leads to the bottom. Brandon and I slide down on our backsides as the animals scamper over the rocks. We jog toward the cave dug into the side of the quarry cliff. Its gaping entry turns darker as the moon begins to cover the edge of the sun.

  Brandon tugs at my arm as we approach the cave. “When we get in there, make sure you—”

  A black blur slams into Brandon and throws him several feet away to the base of a huge pile of rocks.

  “Brandon!”

  I run over to him. The wolverine backs away from Brandon, scuffing her claws on the ground and blowing hot air through her nostrils.

  Brandon eases himself off the ground, shakes his head, and brushes his hands on his jeans.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah. It’ll take more than a rabid rodent to knock me out,” he says, clenching his fists.

  The wolverine lowers her head, ready to charge again. “You shouldn’t have come,” she says.

  The tule vieja charges again. I dodge to the right, and Brandon climbs up the rock pile out of the way. The wolverine slams into the rocks, tumbling several down on top of herself. She heaves her body out from under them and shakes her head.

  The wolverine turns and glares at me with large black eyes. “You’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

  The black bear runs up behind me. “We’ve got this, Nestor. We can hold her off. Go get your people.”

  The wolverine charges again, and the black bear lowers his head, his thick arms and large claws ready to wrap around the incoming mass of teeth and fur. Brandon jumps down from the rock pile, and we race toward the cave. I hear a scream behind me and glance back to see black fur flying as the tule vieja morphs into a snake.

  We run into the cave and stop, pressing our backs to the cave wall. I wait for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. What little light seeps inside the mouth of the cave doesn’t do much to help me see inside.

  “Dude, your flashlight,” Brandon whispers next to me.

  I lower my head. “Yeah, uh, I dropped it out there.”

  “Seriously?”

  I feel something brush my leg, and I jump.

  “You fellas need some night vision?” I look down and see Val at my feet.

  “Yes, we do.”

  “All right. Follow me,” he says, trotting farther into the cave.

  I nudge Brandon. “The coyote will be our guide.”

  He chuckles. “Dude, I know we’re on a rescue mission trying not to get attacked by a witch … but this is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  Brandon and I follow Val down a passageway. Squinting in the dark, I see sparkling mounds of white on the ground. I run closer and find two spider-silk cocoons, each containing a person shivering inside.

  I race toward the first cocoon, which has light purple hair sprouting from the top.

  “Buela!”

  I try to pry the spider silk off her. It’s wrapped tightly around her body and almost cuts through my skin when I pull on it. This isn’t like any regular spiderweb I’ve ever seen.

  Brandon crouches down next to Abuela. “Dad!” he says. He paws at the spider silk, but he can’t get it off, either.

  “Use your knife,” I tell him.

  He feels the pockets of his jacket, then lets loose a word that Abuela would give me a smack on the back of the head for if I ever said it.

  “I think I left it at Maria Carmen’s.”

  Val huffs behind us. “You two are an expert rescue team. I tell you what, I’ll be right back.”

  He scampers down the passageway toward the entrance of the cave.

  “Val’s getting help,” I tell Brandon.

  I put my hand on top of Abuela’s head. She squirms in the cocoon. “Niño?” she mumbles.

  “I’m here, Abuela. I’m here. We’re gonna get you out.”

  Val returns, a bobcat by his side.

  “You know, for two animal-trivia geniuses,” he scoffs, “I’m surprised you didn’t know bobcats have incredibly sharp claws.”

  “Perfect!” Brandon looks at me. “You know, bobcats have really sharp claws.”

  The bobcat tilts his head at Brandon. “That’s what I said. Name’s Rufus, by the way. Your savior, Rufus.”

  Rufus lifts a thick paw and makes quick work of the cocoon around Abuela, slashing through the tightly bound silk. Abuela tumbles into my arms with a sigh.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, my voice breaking.

  “Sí, mi niño. I’ve been through worse than this,” Abuela says, a soft chuckle rising from her throat.

  Rufus moves over to Brandon’s dad, slashing through the silk and freeing him from the cocoon. Brandon grabs his dad’s arms to steady him.

  “There’s my boy,” Brandon’s dad says. He pulls Brandon into a hug, and I watch them, swallowing down the lump in my throat.

  Brandon’s dad looks from his son to Val and the bobcat. “I’m sure you have a good explanation for all this, son, but I’ll wait to hear it,” he says, groaning and stretching his arms.

  Brandon gives his dad another hug. “Good. Because I’ll need to figure out what the heck I’m going to say.”

  Abuela leans on me. “We need to get your friends.”

  I turn to Val. “There are two more cocoons here. We need to find them.”

  Brandon’s dad whispers in his son’s ear, “Did he just—”

  Brandon holds up his finger to his mouth. “Later. It’ll all make sense later. Maybe.”

  I hear him scamper farther into the cave. After a minute, he shouts, “They’re here! They’re here!”

  “Go! Get them!” I say to Rufus. He takes off running down the cave.

  Our heavy breathing echoes through the cave as Abuela, Brandon, his dad, and I wait for Val and Rufus to return with Maria Carmen and Talib.

  We hear shuffling coming from deeper in the cave. Abuela grabs my hand as the sound grows closer.

&n
bsp; And then I hear a voice. “I’m going to snap that snake’s neck into a thousand pieces.”

  Maria Carmen.

  “We’re here, guys!” I call. “Just follow the bobcat.”

  The steps quicken, and soon Maria Carmen and Talib stand in front of us. Maria Carmen wraps her arms around me, and Talib slaps me on the back.

  “Ay, mis niños,” Abuela says, taking us all in her arms.

  “Thanks for coming to get us,” Maria Carmen says. She looks sheepishly at Brandon and mumbles, “Thanks.”

  Rufus nudges my shin with his head. “There are a lot more animals down there,” he says, indicating the dark cave with his paw. “We should get them out, too.”

  I translate Rufus’s message for everyone, and Brandon and I take off farther down the passageway with Rufus. Maria Carmen and Talib stay with Brandon’s dad and Abuela as Maria Carmen continues to curse the tule vieja.

  Brandon and I stop in front of row upon row of shiny spider-silk cocoons. Rufus licks his paw and says, “Give the professional some room to work, please.”

  I pull Brandon back as Rufus slashes at each of the cocoons, revealing dogs, cats, rabbits, and goats. He takes longer on an incredibly large cocoon that reveals a brown horse when the spider silk falls away. The horse shakes his black mane and asks for a carrot.

  Brandon and I shoo the animals up the passageway as Rufus releases more and more. It looks like a zoo jailbreak flooding out of the cave.

  Finally, we run back to Maria Carmen, Talib, Abuela, and Brandon’s dad. “Let’s get out of here,” I tell them.

  “Follow me!” Val shouts.

  “You heard him. Let’s go!” I say, starting to run out of the cave.

  “Nestor, we don’t speak coyote,” Talib mumbles, following me with the others into the darkening quarry.

  CHAPTER 25

  BURSTING FROM THE CAVE, we see the eclipse is almost in full effect. The moon stretches across half the sun, casting long shadows throughout the quarry.