Each Sunday thereafter, Antonio attends mass, hoping to hear God, but each Sunday, he leaves unsatisfied, and soon school is out and it is time for him to travel to El Puerto, where he will spend the summer learning about farming from his uncles. He wonders about his destiny and tells Miss Violet, his teacher, that a man's destiny is like a flower unfolding itself to the sun, the earth, and water.
Antonio perceives the plains and the hills to be filled with life, yet he senses a dark shadow over all their lives. He is worried about tracks near the juniper tree, where Narciso was killed, and about the news that old Tenorio's second daughter is dying. He is also disturbed when the rancher Téllez asks for Ultima's help in purging his house of what seems to be evil spirits who break dishes, cause a coffee pot to jump around and spill coffee, and rain stones down from the sky onto the roof of the house. A priest blessed the house, but the blessing was ineffectual; it changed nothing. Now, only Ultima can intervene and banish the evil.
Ultima explains that three lingering ghostly Comanche souls from long ago were improperly buried and now have been manipulated by the witch-like Trementina sisters to torment the Téllez family. She says that she can help Téllez, but she reminds the rancher that he must accept the consequences of her interference with destiny.
