The Only Road

Despite a tense moment at a checkpoint, the children are successfully smuggled across the border between Guatemala and Mexico. They are left there, alone but for each other, and Jaime continues to be plagued by what-ifs and guilt for surviving while his cousin and best friend did not.

Their options for moving further north are the bus, a train, or walking. None of them are safe, and each has its own attendant dangers. They decide to try the bus and make their way to the station. There they discover that a bus ticket is more than some of their neighbors can earn in a day and gain a new appreciation for how much money they will need for the trip. They explore the town of Tapachula while they wait for the bus and discover a church. There Jaime takes out his sketchbook, which he carries everywhere, and loses himself in trying to draw what he sees.

Jaime and Ángela eat some of the food their abuela packed, then Ángela makes Jaime memorize Tomás’s number, in case they are separated or lose the paper it is written on. Jaime continues to be extremely afraid of what might await them on the way north: