Signs Preceding the End of the World

It begins to snow as Makina crosses the mountain pass. She finds a truck waiting for her, just as Chucho promised, driven by one of Mr. Aitch’s men. As they drive, he seems to want to make conversation, but Makina is too preoccupied with the guilt of leaving her switchboard.  

The driver refuses to take the package from Makina and instead drops her off on a deserted street. She moves warily through the city. She inspects signs and supermarkets, goaded to move on by the suspicious Northerners. The narrator says that she sees “her compatriots, her homegrown, armed with work: builders, florists, loaders, drivers; playing it sly so as not to let on to any shared objective, and instead just, just, just: just there to take orders” (57). She takes notice of her countrymen and women working in the many restaurants and jokes to herself, “All cooking is Mexican cooking” (58).  

She meets an old man waiting at the shop the driver had indicated. He has her wash up; the wound on her side appears to be healing. The old man leads her down the street. They are followed for a while by undercover police. The old man tells her that her brother is alive and well, but he is changed.