Sanctuary

Ernie is feverish, but Vali does not know if this is due to heat exhaustion or the cactus. He needs fluids and a way to cool down. She continues feeding him juice from cacti, and she and Malakas drink some too. This does not seem to be enough, so Malakas looks through his binoculars, then runs off. He returns shortly with some trail mix and two gallons of water, which he found at a nearby empty campsite. Vali and Malakas lament all the people they have lost already.

Vali, Ernie, and Malakas hide for three days while they rehydrate. Ernie improves and is excited that they only have 50 miles left to travel. At night, they see a moped coming toward them. Ernie hides while Vali and Malakas grab some rocks. The moped driver, who is a DF agent, pulls over to smoke a cigarette, without noticing them. Vali hits him in the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious. The officer’s phone buzzes with messages from other DF agents asking for updates. Malakas says they need to leave. Ernie leaves the officer some water, and they get on the moped with Vali driving. On the dashboard, there’s a map with GPS. They travel for a while before approaching a DF checkpoint; they have no option but to stop when an agent holds a gun on them.

When they stop, Vali realizes this DF agent is a teenage girl about her own age. Vali sticks her wrist out and the officer looks disturbed at Vali’s wound from where Malakas cut her chip out. Vali shares her real name and birth date; the officer is one day younger than Vali. She lowers her gun and allows them to go. Vali doesn’t know why they’ve been spared, but she is grateful. They only have 40 miles left to travel.

Dawn arrives; they are in Yuma County, Arizona, just a few miles from the border. There are no more checkpoints, but construction of the wall that will separate California from the rest of the US is already in place, and landmines are planted. The screen on the moped’s dashboard indicates the location of the landmines. Vali notices that there are no mines in the Colorado River, which crosses the border into California. This is now their plan for how to cross into California.

The closer Malakas, Vali, and Ernie get to the Colorado River, the more land mines there are, and they must drive slowly and in a maze-like fashion to avoid them all. DF officers start trailing them. Drones start dropping nets and shooting. At the riverbank, they run into the water.

Malakas, Vali, and Ernie swim 583 strokes to cross the river with DF still shooting at them. Even though Vali and Ernie are not great swimmers, they muster all the strength and courage they can in order to keep going. They emerge on the other side in California.

The narration switches to present tense. A rescue team helps Malakas, Vali, and Ernie out of the river and wraps them in blankets. Vali notices a cartoon princess on hers. The rescuers feed them and ask them questions. Vali tries to answer but worries she is not making sense. The rescuers agree to help Vali find Tia Luna and, if possible, Mami. They reach Tia Luna by phone and she agrees to pick them up. The rescuers send Malakas to a group home for child refugees.

Tia Luna arrives and is flustered but overjoyed that Vali and Ernie are safe. She drives them to her house, a one-bedroom structure in the backyard of someone else’s home. They shower, eat, and sleep. Vali is incredibly grateful to be safe and alive, but she is overwhelmed with emotions. She tells Tia Luna about the DF tents in the desert where she saw a woman who resembled Mami. Tia Luna says the US government has stopped deporting undocumented immigrants, and now they enslave them instead so they can “pay off their debt to America” (285). The DF now forces undocumented immigrants to work for no pay while living in cages and chained to each other. So far, no one has escaped this enslavement, so Tia Luna and other citizens cannot know exactly what goes on in those tents. Vali says they need to help, but Tia Luna says there is no safe way to do this.

Tia Luna has joined various community groups who meet at her house sometimes. These groups want to help undocumented immigrants in “the Other 49” (286), which is how Californians now refer to the non-California part of the US. Vali attends the meetings but her frustration grows because despite the effort and planning these organizers put in nothing actually changes. Vali’s wrist is infected, so she sees a doctor who prescribes antibiotics.

Vali speaks to Malakas on the phone. His group home is full of children and young adults wondering if they will ever see their families again and what their next steps in life are. She wishes Malakas could live with Tia Luna too, but he can’t. Vali misses Malakas, and she also misses how she felt when she was with him; back then, she had a clear purpose at all times: Stay alive and outrun the DF. Now, she feels like she is at a standstill because there is nothing she can do about Mami, Malakas, or other conflicts.

Now its own country, California creates a database of names, contact information, and stories of undocumented immigrants who were previously in the Other 49 but have arrived in California for sanctuary. Tia Luna takes Vali and Ernie to contribute to the database. A woman named Kelly asks Vali many questions; some seem pointless to Vali, such as which addresses Vali has lived at in the past. Vali doesn’t understand how any of this will help her mother or anyone else. She suspects the purpose of the database is just to make Californians feel like they are helping, when really, they are not doing anything useful.

Vali starts writing Mami letters, although she knows Mami won’t be able to read them. Vali and Ernie start attending school, and Vali makes a friend, Isabel, who reminds her of Kenna. Vali and Malakas speak on the phone often but haven’t seen each other since arriving in California. Both have flashbacks because of their traumatic journey.

On the Fourth of July in Los Angeles, a large meeting of activists occurs. Someone gives a speech and debriefs the crowd: California seceded from the US two months prior. Since then, 15,000 undocumented immigrants have arrived in California. An estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants remain unaccounted for in the Other 49. Ten new DF tents have been discovered in the past two weeks, suggesting thousands of people were recently captured. Nobody has escaped the camps, so insider information is still limited. Construction of the wall separating California from the rest of the US should be completed within the year. The wall will have thousands of landmines surrounding it. Alaska has chosen to remain part of the US but Hawaii is attempting to secede. Everyone at the meeting seems excited about this, but Vali feels disheartened; the statistics do not convey the actual stories of undocumented immigrants’ struggles.

In Vali’s dream, Mami tells her to return to the Colorado River. She calls Malakas and arranges to meet him there. They hug, then are silent for a while. They watch the water. Vali says she feels like she is still swimming across the river, stuck in that moment. Malakas explains that the moon controls the water to some degree. They step into the water, where Vali feels like her parents both “are.” Vali still feels a pull drawing her back to the Other 49, where Mami is.