62 pages 2 hours read

Jeanine Cummins

American Dirt

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Chapters 14-18

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 14 Summary

Lydia and Luca follow La Bestia's tracks, determined to get on the train. A few hours into their walk, they encounter Rebeca and Soledad, two beautiful sisters sitting atop an overpass. The girls remind Lydia of her dead niece, Yénifer. The sisters are taken with Luca, who is the spitting image of their cousin. They show him a picture of the boy with two missing teeth. Luca recalls Sebastián pulling out his first loose tooth and leaving it under the pillow for El Ratoncito Pérez to retrieve. The sisters describe how they jump onto La Bestia from overpasses near turns, where the trains travel more slowly. First they toss their backpacks down, then they drop like frogs onto the trains. Rebeca invites Lydia and Luca to travel with them. The train arrives soon after. One at a time, the sisters toss their packs and make the leap. Lydia coaches Luca through the jump. He rolls to the edge of the train until another migrant catches him. Terrified, Lydia follows close behind.