When I Was Puerto Rican: 3. Someone is Coming to Take Your Lap Summary & Analysis

Negi explains that whenever Mami gets fed up with Macún or with Papi, she runs away to Santurce. Santurce is a suburb of San Juan, and though it's very urban, it’s decidedly not charming. As one of 15 children, Mami has a number of family members in the city, although by this time, her mother, Tata, had left for Brooklyn. Negi's new home in Santurce is one room, but with running water and electricity. They share a bathroom with another family and the children play in the bathroom every day.

The following day, Negi enrolls in first grade. Her new school is large with a real playground. Mami tells Negi to not look at or talk to anyone on her walk to or from school, but Negi notices as much as she can. Sometimes she sees Catholic schoolchildren, and she's jealous of how ordered their lives look. She wonders if those children eat or sleep the way she does, and realizes that she's different. Here in Santurce, Negi's classmates accuse her of being a “jíbara” when she appears particularly provincial or uneducated. Negi walks to and from school alone.

Around Christmas, the songs Negi hears coming from jukeboxes change: they're still about women and alcohol, but they have Christmas elements added in. At home, Negi's family sings their own Christmas songs. Papi visits, and once he brings string lights and helps the children hang them. Mami spends most of her time in the kitchen cooking while relatives sit at their table. Delsa and Norma play with female cousins, while Negi runs with her male cousins.

One day, Negi's uncle, Tío Cucho, comes with a woman named Rita. Rita wears a low cut dress and lots of jewelry, as well as high heels. Mami doesn't like Rita, but Negi does. Negi hears Mami talking about Rita to her friends. They say that Rita has two children that she leaves alone while she parties and "bewitches men." Mami and the friend notice Negi listening, and Mami sends Negi to check on Héctor. Negi wonders if Rita is a puta. As she gets further away Mami and her friend laugh and keep talking, and Negi feels angry and left out.

One day, Negi asks Mami about the shiny "ribbons" strung up in the neighbor's yard, and Mami explains that they're pig guts for making sausage. Negi is disgusted, and Mami explains how sausage is made and what's in it. Horrified but curious, Negi asks Mami what's in morcillas, her favorite kind of sausage. Mami says it's mostly blood. Suddenly Mami winces, and Negi asks if she's okay. Mami explains that the baby in her stomach is swimming, and she lets Negi feel the baby move.

A few days later, Negi asks Papi what a sin is. He tells her it's something that makes God angry. Negi asks for an example, and he begins to explain the ten commandments to her. She asks question after question and learns that though her family is Catholic, they're not "good" ones. Papi can't explain all ten commandments because Negi asks so many questions.

That night, Negi worries that Mami's moans will keep the Three Magi from coming and filling her shoes with candy and presents, yet the Three Magi come despite Mami's moans. Papi sits outside with Negi and her siblings that afternoon, and Mami has another baby girl. They name her Alicia. After her birth, Papi visits more often. Mami ignores him, and he plays with the children instead. Eventually Mami starts to forgive him. One night, she invites him in for dinner. Later, as Negi lies in bed, she happily listens to them sit on the porch and talk.

Negi and her family return to Macún. Negi is thrilled and wants to run all over the land, but Mami pulls her back down into her seat when she stands up. When they arrive, Negi thinks that she's home and never wants to leave. She describes their home, the trees, and the farm behind their property, where Negi is forbidden from going. Just over the fence on the farmland is a grove of grapefruit trees that Negi wishes she could pick from.

As Mami guts a chicken one afternoon, she calls Negi to come and look at the hen's unlaid eggs. Mami says that the eggs are delicious in soup, and Negi says she believes what Mami says about food. The soup that night is delicious.

Negi introduces the reader to her friend Juanita, who lives down the road and walks to school with Negi. Negi can tell Juanita about modern amenities in Santurce like running water, but Juanita has information about the underbelly of Macún, particularly the shortcuts through the woods to the next town where the putas live (according to the girls' mothers).

Juanita's grandfather, Don Berto, lives behind Juanita's house. He's an ancient man and spends his time sharpening a machete. Negi and Juanita sit with him often and listen to his jíbaro stories. One morning, Mami tells Negi that Juanita won't be at school that day because Don Berto died. Negi is annoyed when Mami won't tell her how she found out this information. Many of Negi's classmates aren't in school, and Negi's teacher says that if any children weren't nice to Don Berto, they'll never get a chance to be nice to him now that he's dead. Negi can't think of a time she was rude to him.

Mami spends her day at Juanita's house getting it and Don Berto's body ready for the wake. At the wake that night, Negi notes how strange it is to see Don Berto's hands holding a rosary and not his machete. When Papi arrives, he leads the gathered friends and family in a prayer. Negi falls asleep to the sounds of the prayer and wakes up next to Delsa at home the next morning. Mami snaps at Negi that she's not going to school today because she and Juanita are going to lead the procession to the cemetery.

Mami dresses Negi in her best dress and they go to Juanita's house. The adults give Negi and Juanita a heavy wreath to carry, and they lead the procession onto the highway. The walk is very long and Negi tries hard to not complain. Negi feels sad for Juanita and tries to imagine her friend's grief.

After dinner, Papi dresses in preparation to lead the novenas (nine days of prayer) for Don Berto. He asks Negi if she'd like to come, and Mami allows her to go with a sweater. As Negi and Papi walk, Negi asks what a soul is. Papi tries to explain what souls do. He says that souls feel and write poetry, but they don't come out of a person's body when a person is alive. Negi knows Papi is wrong about that: her soul walks beside her sometimes. At Juanita's house, Papi settles in a chair next to a picture of Don Berto. Negi wonders where Don Berto's soul is, and tries to send her soul to meet his.

As Doña Lola cuddles Alicia one day, she tells her, "someone is coming to take your lap." Negi is at Doña Lola's house to trade foodstuffs, and says that Papi told her they'd have electricity by the time the new baby arrives. Doña Lola tells Negi that the farm behind her house is owned by an American, and soon, the American is going to build a hotel on the land. Back at home, Negi asks Mami about the hotel. Mami says that people have been talking about the hotel and electricity forever, and says that Negi's children will be teenagers before any of that happens. Later, Negi asks Mami about New York. Mami says she's never been, but maybe someday she'll go.

Negi sits in the back yard with her siblings and listens to Mami scream as she labors. At dusk, their neighbor's daughter, Gloria, comes to get Negi and the children. The children are scared hearing Mami scream and Delsa tries to comfort everyone. Negi tells some of Don Berto's stories that night, and when she and her siblings return home the next morning, Mami is nursing the new baby, Edna, and Papi is installing a kerosene cookstove.

The first week in May, it begins to rain and Mami yells at the children to take off their clothes. Mami steps out of her dress and carries days-old Edna to the door. She leads her children outside and stands in the rain, smiling. Norma, wide eyed, remarks that Mami is taking a bath. Mami explains that it's good luck to get wet in the first May rain, and she leads Delsa and Héctor into the rain. Finally Negi and Norma join, form a circle, and sing. The children chase each other and head inside when the thunder starts. Negi explains that it rained the entire rest of the month, and Papi couldn't work. He stays inside and reads magazines. If he goes to work and then it starts raining, he's gone for days.