The Distance Between Us: Book Two: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

When Reyna starts eighth grade, she has officially become a señorita, and has also placed out of ESL classes—she is allowed to start regular eighth-grade English. She has become obsessed with reading, and finds solace particularly in the books of V.C. Andrews—one book, Flowers in the Attic, is about four siblings who are locked away by their cruel grandparents after their father’s death. Over the months, the children’s mother starts visiting them less and less frequently as she begins dating other men. V.C. Andrews’s stories make Reyna feel better about her own life, and grateful that things for her were never as bad as they could have been.

Halfway through the school year, Reyna enters a short-story competition. Just as with her book competition in elementary school, Reyna enters hoping that, if she wins, she’ll finally make Papi proud. She writes a short story about identical twins who are separated as young girls after their parents divorce. Through her writing, Reyna is able to explore stories about broken families, absent parents, and separated siblings. Writing, alongside the alto sax, becomes one of Reyna’s favorite ways of expressing herself.

Several weeks later, Reyna is announced as the winner of the writing competition. Her English teacher gives her the competition prize—a blue ribbon and two tickets to go on the Queen Mary. Reyna is confused, and thinks she’s just won two tickets to a cruise. When her teacher explains that the Queen Mary is docked in Long Beach and doesn’t actually go anywhere, Reyna is vaguely disappointed, but still proud of herself. She brings her prize home to Papi, but when she shows him what she’s won, he is unenthusiastic. He doesn’t see the point of traveling all the way to Long Beach to go on a ship that doesn’t sail. Reyna is sad, but doesn’t allow herself to be discouraged. She puts her prize in a memory box, sits down at her desk, and begins writing another story.