Behold the Dreamers: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

Neni goes on as though everything is fine. Jende assures her that they’ll take things as they come, but this leaves her uneasy. She wants to feel in control of her life. Six days after Jende reveals the dreadful news about his immigration status, her stress-related headache ceases, but she experiences new symptoms: loss of appetite, frequent urination, and nausea. When she tells Jende that she thinks she’s pregnant, she bursts into tears of joy and despair.

While packing Liomi’s lunch one morning, he reminds Neni of the parent-teacher conference scheduled for that day. She’s tempted to tell him that she can’t come, but she knows that she has to carry on as though everything were normal. The teacher assures Neni that Liomi’s a good student, which Neni knows, due to helping him with his homework on most evenings. However, when the teacher tells her that he could be more attentive in class and suggests that he spend less time associating with his classmate, Billy, Neni rises to button her coat and assures the teacher that this “nonsense” will end after today. Neni is out the door before the teacher can say anymore.

At home, Neni gives Liomi crackers and juice and then proceeds to remind him of why she and Jende send him to school. She asks who Billy is. When Liomi identifies him as his friend, she tells him that he doesn’t go to school to make friends but only to listen to his teacher. She reminds him that his father doesn’t go to work every day for him to play in school. Liomi cries and promises not to do it again. Neni assures him that he’ll do well in school and grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer. Liomi says that he’d like to be a chauffeur like his father. Neni’s amused and says that Jende’s only a chauffeur because it’s the best he can do, due to not finishing school. Liomi, however, can be much more if he does well in school.

The talk with Liomi makes Neni feel hopeful, as though her family may still have a chance. When Jende returns home from work at six o’clock that evening, she serves him dinner and leaves for her eight o’clock precalculus class. When the instructor hands back the previous week’s test, she sees that she got a B-minus. She goes to her instructor, saying that she doesn’t understand how she got the grade after studying so much. She worries that her GPA may suffer. The instructor suggests that she email him so that they can arrange to meet and find out where she’s struggling. He encourages her to “cheer up,” reminding her that many students would be happy with a B-minus.