Esperanza has an aunt who has been ill for years, lying in bed while her husband and two sons take care of her, the house, and each other, a job they don't do too well. Esperanza has sometimes read to her from her library books and once read one of her own poems to her aunt. Aunt Lupe told her to keep writing. Now, in "Born Bad," Esperanza is ashamed because she and Lucy and Rachel have, for fun, imitated Aunt Lupe's voice and mannerisms, laughing at the way she did and said things. Esperanza's mother happened to see them and was angry, and now Lupe has died.
Esperanza goes to visit a "witch woman" in "Elenita, Cards, Palm, Water." This person knows how to tell fortunes by various means and also knows how to make things happen by magic. Elenita sends her children out of the room while she tells Esperanza's fortune. Esperanza is disappointed because she wants in particular to find out if she will have a house. Finally she asks Elenita, who says Esperanza will have a home in the heart — something Esperanza doesn't understand.
