Clap When You Land: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Everyone knows Yahaira has been skipping school off and on. When she starts going to class again, her classmates are taking finals, and Yahaira is totally out of the loop. Everything feels fake, and it seems like nothing matters—not an essay on The Tempest or a trigonometry exam. None of those things will explain why Papi’s plane crashed and why Yahaira can barely breathe. Maybe Yahaira will survive if she pretends that Papi is gone like normal and will be back in the fall.

Yahaira isn’t the only one skipping; Mami hasn’t been to work in two weeks. The owner of the spa Mami manages called the house phone and left a voicemail last night. So, this morning, Yahaira wakes Mami, brushes her hair, repaints her nails, and helps her into a dress that fits looser than it once did. She orders Mami a Lyft and sends her off to work. Mami looks lost as she gets into the car. Yahaira stops herself from chasing after the car and begging Mami to never leave.

Yahaira is used to managing time and “using time to succeed.” But they say the plane went down too quickly for safety measures like life vests to make a difference, or even for the Coast Guard to mount a rescue—the plane had been underwater for hours by the time they got there. These days, if Yahaira goes to school, her teachers send her to the guidance counselor. She says nothing when the counselor asks her how she’s doing. Yahaira almost wants to share that some mornings, she wakes up with her nails digging dents into her palms—and that on the mornings she doesn’t, she’s angry at herself for taking a break from grieving. But Yahaira just eats the counselor’s mints and waits to be dismissed.

When Yahaira doesn’t go to school, she goes to Dre’s house, where Dr. Johnson welcomes her (she’s between teaching spring and summer classes right now.) Today, Yahaira is organizing the Johnsons’ living room library. Dr. Johnson always lets Yahaira borrow books or games, or sugar for Mami. Now, Yahaira tells Dr. Johnson she wishes she could “borrow time, / or space, or answers.” Dr. Johnson advises Yahaira to let herself mourn or the grief will chase her forever. Instead, Yahaira returns to the books.

When Mami gets home that night, she’s pale and trembling—she doesn’t tell Yahaira “how much it must have cost her to smile.” Later, Yahaira and Mami go to their neighborhood association’s grief counseling session. A Spanish-speaking counselor and a priest are there. People are crying before it even starts, and the room seems to hum with pain. When the counselor asks the group about loss, Yahaira realizes she doesn’t know how to say “I am a graceful loser” in Spanish. She’s made many mistakes that have cost her a win, but did God win this match? Did Papi lose it? It sure feels like Mami and Yahaira lost.

Attendees explain that they lost parents retiring to Santo Domingo, couples going on their honeymoon, or little girls visiting grandparents. More than 80% of people were connected to the Dominican Republic; most were “Returning.” When Mami speaks, she softly says that Papi went back every year, and she feels like she’s losing him again every morning. Yahaira feels suddenly enraged. Will Mami finally learn what Yahaira knows, what she hasn’t been able to bring up to Mami? Yahaira has been protecting Mami, certain that revealing the secret would change everything. If Mami never finds out, will Yahaira be the only one who knows the truth? When it’s Yahaira’s turn to speak, she just shrugs. She and Mami silently agree they won’t return for the next session. 

Yahaira is doing dishes after the counseling session when her old chess coach calls. In the voice he uses to console newbies when they lose to little kids, Coach Lublin tells Yahaira that he and the team are thinking about her. Yahaira worked with Coach for two years, but he wasn’t surprised when she quit. He still smiles at her and invites her to come to practice, though he never pressures her to rejoin the team. Hearing his voice makes Yahaira’s heart squeeze. She wonders what the phone would do if she dropped it in the sink; would it sink or float? How does water know to let an object in? Could they stick it in rice after and revive it? But Mami interrupts Yahaira’s reverie with a look, so Yahaira thanks Coach. Death is “so damn polite.”

Mami and Yahaira’s apartment has leather sofas covered in plastic and frilly curtains over the windows. They host summer barbecues in the courtyard. Unlike the neighbors, Papi and Mami own the apartment in the co-op; they bought it when they found out Mami was pregnant with a girl. These days, Yahaira sits on the fire escape so she can breathe. The house feels like “a choked-up throat” and like a “National Geographic shrine” to Papi. It is “a living sadness” and it weeps as Mami paces at night.

Fifteen Days After. It’s late afternoon on Saturday when the doorbell rings. Yahaira listens as Mami lets multiple people inside, but she keeps her eyes closed when someone opens her door. Yahaira wants the guest to be an intruder who will steal her pain, but it’s Dre. Dre tells Yahaira to scoot over and holds Yahaira close. As Mami and Dr. Johnson chat in the living room, Yahaira allows someone to hold her for the first time since Papi died.

Yahaira is surprised when Dre (whose nails would be covered in dirt if it weren’t for Yahaira) grabs the acetone bottle and removes Yahaira’s nail polish. Yahaira just did this for Mami yesterday, but she didn’t notice that she’s bitten the polish off of her own nails. When her nails are clean, Yahaira grabs Dre’s face and kisses her, trying not to cry.

Papi’s body has been identified by his gold tooth. Within the hour, relatives arrive: Tío Jorge and his wife, Tía Mabel; Tía Lidia and her son, Wilson; Papi’s cousins. They bring Bibles and food. The men drink and talk quietly, while Tía Lidia takes Mami into the bedroom to pray. With Mami gone, Tía Mabel does what Mami hasn’t been able to do: order flowers, research caskets, call a church, speak to a relative in the Dominican Republic, and publish an obituary. Wilson sits on hold with the airline, hoping to figure out when they can collect Papi’s remains. When Mami returns from the bedroom, the discussion turns to whether Papi should be buried here or in the DR. Even in death, Papi is the one bringing the family together.

When Tío Jorge notices Yahaira standing in the living room doorway, he leads her to Papi’s favorite chair, and they snuggle together. Tío Jorge and Mabel don’t have children, but they would’ve been great parents. Yahaira sits with her uncle for a long time, knowing they’re hurting in the exact same way.

In the middle of the funeral discussion, Yahaira gets up and puts one of Papi’s favorite bachata records on the old record player. Everyone goes quiet as the music starts, and though it’s a breakup song, the singer advising the listener not to cry or think about another man feels apt. But Mami slams her hand down on the disc, stopping the music in the middle. This also seems fitting. Yahaira knows the music is inappropriate for mourning. She just needed to remember life before this for a moment.

As they sit around the table, trying to choose a photo to laminate for mourners, Tía Mabel asks Mami where they’ll bury Papi. Privately, Yahaira has been making a mental list of the things she doesn’t want to forget about Papi, such as his laugh or his smile, or his chopped-off finger. She wants a photo that captures the fact that Papi was “the big hot boiling sun / we all looked to for light.” She wants to forget the last year and remember the good things that happened before, but none of the photos are quite right.

When Tía Mabel asks her question, something—not sadness—flashes in Mami’s eyes. She spits angrily that Papi’s real family is here, so he’ll be buried here. Yahaira can’t help but wonder if Mami knows. Tía Mabel clearly wants to say something, but she stays silent. Tío Jorge, though, shakes his head and says that Papi always wanted to be buried “back home.” Mami says that she was Papi’s wife, and she refuses. Yahaira’s heart pounds; does everyone know? Tío Jorge pulls out a folder and says that Mami can’t change Papi’s will. He also reminds Mami that she agreed to “The other matter.” Mami straightens the papers and says that Papi can be buried in the Dominican Republic—but they won’t go to the funeral.

Yahaira wants to agree with Mami, but she loved Papi and knows it’s not so simple. She says she wants to go to the DR for Papi’s funeral; he died alone, thinking of them, and it’s not right to not pray over his grave. Yahaira thinks it’s absurd that she and Mami would miss Papi’s funeral. But Mami turns around and icily says that Papi wasn’t a saint. She says she will never let Yahaira go to the DR, no matter what. Yahaira smiles at Mami, remembering Papi’s advice to never let them see you sweat. Anyone who’s paid attention to how Yahaira plays chess knows that if she smiles, they should watch out.

Mami is a good, good woman. She’s smart, attends school events, and always makes dinner. She never forgets to pick Yahaira up and she mends all of Yahaira’s clothes, and she’s wonderful at buying presents. Yahaira knows she’s failed her mother. Mami wanted a girl to raise to be like her, but she got Yahaira instead, who has always been so much like Papi. A better daughter would’ve told Mami the things that Yahaira still keeps secret. So, Yahaira is Papi’s daughter—a bad daughter.

What Yahaira learned about Papi is like a stain on a white dress. You hope it won’t spread and try to ignore it, but it’s always there, “A glaring fault.” Yahaira learned that Papi had another wife, whom he married a few months after he married Mami in the U.S. Yahaira found the envelope containing the marriage certificate and a photo of them on their wedding day. Mami clearly didn’t know; she’s not the sort to stay while Papi saw someone else. The other woman destroyed Yahaira’s family; she made Papi leave Yahaira every year and she made him ignore his family in New York. When he got home last year, Yahaira didn’t know how to pretend things were fine, so she stopped speaking to him. It was the only way to not poison the whole family.