Mexican Gothic: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Noemí wakes the next day very glad to see daylight. They’ve left her a tray of breakfast, but she fears that it may be poisoned, so she hardly touches it. Florence comes to her room and tells Noemí that Virgil wishes to see her. She follows Florence down the hallway and down the stairs, then dashes for the front door. Surprisingly, it’s unlocked. Although the mist outside is quite thick, Noemí runs blindly from the house. She loses a shoe and hears her dress rip. It quickly becomes more difficult for her to breathe, almost like a hand is squeezing her throat. She tries to keep going, but she can hardly breathe, and she collapses on the ground.

A man lifts her up like she weighs nothing at all. Noemí has her other shoe in her hand, and she swings it at the man’s face. He grunts angrily and holds her tighter in his arms, then walks her back to the house. Noemí hardly made it a few meters before collapsing. In the light of the house she sees that it’s Virgil who holds her. He brings her to her bathroom, places her in the tub, and turns the water on.  He orders her to take her clothes off, reaching forward to undo one of Noemí’s buttons. The shortness of breath is gone, so she slaps his hand away and yells at him. He repeats his order, this time with a threat: “Get out of those clothes before I make you.”

Noemí undoes her buttons with shaky hands. She knows that Virgil means what he threatens, so she takes her clothes off and cleans herself while he watches. He puts his hand on her thigh, and Noemí pushes herself back, curling into a ball at the back of the tub. She tells him to leave, and Virgil smiles. He asks why Noemí is suddenly so bashful—last time that wasn’t the case. Just as Virgil grabs her head and moves to kiss her, Francis enters the room. Dr. Cummins is here, he says, and he’s waiting to see Noemí. To her immense relief Virgil leaves the room.

Noemí is brought to the bedroom, where Dr. Cummins examines her. Noemí is fine, he says, nothing but a couple of scrapes. But if she damaged her face, Howard would have been mad. Noemí notices that Dr. Cummins looks like a Doyle, and the doctor admits that he’s distantly related. He tells Noemí that she needs to eat, but she refuses. He sighs, noting that women can be so difficult. Noemí claps back by asking if his daughter was difficult, too. Noemí accuses him of giving Howard his own daughter—Virgil said that she ran away, but that’s not true, is it? No one ever leaves this place. She’s dead, isn’t she? Did Howard kill her?

The doctor stands up and tells Francis that he must talk some sense into Noemí. Howard will not tolerate this sort of behavior. He leaves the room. Francis grabs the tray and brings it to Noemí. He tells her in Spanish what food has been laced with fungus and what food is clean. Howard can hear through the walls, but he doesn’t speak Spanish. He tells Noemí that he wants to help her. He takes out Marta’s flask—they told him to get rid of it after Catalina’s episode, but he didn’t listen. The fungus is very sensitive to certain triggers, like this tincture, and cigarettes. Taking a little of the tincture will loosen the fungus’s hold on Noemí, but if she takes too much, she’ll have a seizure like Catalina.

Francis continues to explain his plan. Uncle Howard is going to die soon, there’s no stopping it. Once his body gives way, he’ll begin the transmigration. Then he’ll take possession of Virgil’s body. When that happens, everyone will be distracted, and the house will be weakened. That’s their chance to escape. Francis knows some tunnels that run underneath the house, so they can go that way. Noemí tells him that she won’t leave without Catalina, and Francis reluctantly agrees to take her too.

Francis tells Noemí that she needs to go along with what the family says until it’s time for them to run. Noemí asks what he means, and he tells her that Howard wants Francis and Noemí to marry and have children. Noemí inquires what will happened if she says no; will Howard take control of her mind? Francis explains that no, that method of control is too coarse for Howard. He knows that people must obey him willingly, otherwise it’s too exhausting. That’s why Ruth was able to grab a rifle, and why the miners were able to organize a strike.

Noemí takes a sip of Marta’s tincture. She asks Francis why she should trust him. He responds that he once read a journal about a cicada fungus. It said that the infected cicadas would still sing for mates even as the fungus consumed them from within. Noemí’s right, he says: he does still have a choice, and he’s unwilling to end his life singing a tune, pretending everything is fine. Noemí has changed him; he can’t pretend anymore.

Francis leaves and Noemí falls asleep. She dreams that Ruth stands at the foot of her bed. Noemí asks if Ruth can hear her, but she responds with the same phrase that she’s said in Noemí’s last few dreams: “I’m not sorry.” Noemí reaches out and touches Ruth’s shoulder. Ruth begins to sob as she tells Noemí that she has to kill Howard. He will never let her escape. That was Ruth’s mistake, she didn’t do it right. Noemí asks how Ruth should have done it—what did she mean? But Ruth just keeps sobbing and falls on the floor. Her body turns gray and sprouts mold, and she begins to tear at her own body. Open your eyes, Noemí tells herself. And she does; she wakes up.