66 pages • 2 hours read
Donna Barba HigueraThe Last Cuentista
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 22-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 22-23 Summary
Voxy leads Petra through the ship to the quarters he shares with Nyla. Luckily, she isn’t around when they enter. Voxy explains how happy he was to find a book to read, saying that he was delighted to experience a world where people are different from each other and free to do as they please.
At first, they find nothing, but Voxy manages to pry open a catch on the back wall of his sleeping cell that leads to a hidden room. Inside is a holographic representation of Earth’s solar system. Petra recognizes it as the seed vault that once stored all the Earth plants that the voyagers brought with them. She finds many En Cognito downloadable programs but doesn’t know for whom they are intended. She also finds the personal belongings of the humans who first boarded the ship, including her family’s. She finds Javier’s book, Dreamers, which Voxy insists is the one he once read. Most importantly, Petra finds the obsidian necklace that Lita gave her the night before she left. Lita said it was “a doorway to bring lost ones together” (2).
Voxy urges Petra to leave before Nyla returns, but they are too late. When they hear her voice, Voxy slips back to his sleep cell to answer Nyla. She has called a meeting that he needs to attend. Once the two leave, Petra slips out of the room herself. She must walk through the main area where Nyla is addressing the Collective about their future on Sagan. As Petra enters an elevator, she hears Nyla talking about the hostiles on the planet. Petra realizes that these may be the human First Arrivers who came to Sagan to establish a colony long before her own ship arrived. If they are still alive, she and the Zetas may be able to find refuge among them. Petra is elated at the thought.
The next morning, all the Zetas are ushered by Crick to their respective labs. Petra immediately begins testing plant samples, though she wonders why all the toxic plants she collected are gone. With Crick still watching her, she begins finding ways to purify water and convert plants to digestible food. In the afternoon, Epsilon-5 arrives to help her. The two work harmoniously together. Since their chores will take hours, Crick leaves. Petra asks why all the toxic plant specimens have been removed. Epsilon-5 says that Nyla had him working on a special project to extract the toxins from the plants.
Petra is confused until she realizes that Nyla means to poison the remaining First Arrivers. Unaware of Petra’s concern, Epsilon-5 continues to talk about his past years serving the Collective. Petra begins to realize that he may have been among the original batch of human children on the ship. Then, she notices a birthmark on his thumb; Petra realizes that Epsilon-5 is her brother, Javier.
Chapters 24-25 Summary
Petra realizes that Javier has no memory of her or his life before the Collective. She quickly changes the subject and asks him where he stored the toxin, just as Nyla walks in. Petra thinks quickly and says that she can improve on the formula that Javier prepared. Nyla thinks the old man may have made a mistake and may no longer be useful, but Petra rushes to reassure her.
Nyla agrees that a shorter half-life for the toxin would be beneficial and allows Petra to gather all the samples. Javier is sent away so she can work alone. She struggles with her emotions in this moment:
I watch him leave, swallowing the lump in my throat. Everything in me says to run after him, hug him, and tell him how sorry I am. But I don’t have time. Once I finish what I need to do, I can spend the rest of his life making it up to him (229).
Petra scans the lab for ingredients that will render the toxin inert. She works quickly, knowing that the humans are running out of time.
In the common area, Nyla is addressing the gathered Collective. She informs them that Len is dead. Petra concludes that this means the planet is uninhabitable for the Collective, but if Nyla is asking her to keep working on the poison, then she intends to kill all of the humans living on Sagan regardless. Running out of time, Petra resolves to get the Zetas and Javier off the ship before Nyla realizes that the toxin is useless.
With Voxy and Nyla both at the gathering, Petra takes her collection bag and rushes back to the room where her family’s belongings are stored. She finds Javier’s book and clothing, as well as a few other mementos. She even finds a unicorn sweatshirt that belonged to Suma. As Petra leaves, Voxy finds her and insists on hearing another cuento. Petra tells him one and slips away just as Nyla returns.
The girl then goes to find Javier and reads him his old copy of Dreamers. His childhood memories return, and Petra explains that they and the Zetas must leave the ship immediately. Javier says that he knows what to do and volunteers to fetch them. Meanwhile, Voxy has been hiding and overheard the siblings’ entire conversation. He promises not to tell but insists that Petra read the book to him. She is about to begin when Nyla enters the room accompanied by Javier. He has betrayed his sister.
Chapters 22-25 Analysis
The theme of The Heart’s Memories is amplified when Voxy leads Petra to the seed vault, which once held all the plants that were brought from Earth. It also contains all the memorabilia that the human survivors brought with them. She eagerly roots out the item that is dearest to her—Lita’s obsidian pendant. Intuitively, she recognizes that objects have the power to evoke memories in the same way that the cuentos do. So, Petra collects other objects that might jog the memories of her shipmates, including her brother’s clothing, his book, and Suma’s sweatshirt.
Significantly, the object that sets this quest in motion is a book. Voxy claims to have seen one on the ship even though Nyla convinces him that they were all destroyed, and he is determined to find the book again. He is unlike the rest of the Collective; not only does he enjoy listening to cuentos desires to live in a world that has stories, but his single memory of having seen a book has stayed with him for years. The author suggests that despite the Collective’s best efforts, a spark of imagination and humanity still survives in its littlest member.
Claiming the objects in the seed vault symbolizes Petra’s ability to reclaim her life. Having done so, the battle between the individual and the Collective intensifies, and Petra takes ever greater risks to save herself and the Zetas. In doing so, she sets herself on a collision course with Nyla. As the ultimate embodiment of the Collective mind, Nyla wishes to exterminate what remains of humanity by releasing a toxin to poison the First Arrivers. Petra represents the power of the individual to resist annihilation. She works feverishly to neutralize the toxin before drones can be deployed to release it on Sagan.
Javier’s development in these chapters is the greatest example of the struggle between the individual and group consciousness. Once Petra helps him reclaim his memory by reading Dreamers to him, he struggles with his identity. The segment ends with Javier seemingly siding with the group instead of protecting his sister.
Intertextuality is incorporated in these chapters through the introduction of Dreamers, a 2018 children’s book by Yuyi Morales. The book is about a mother and her child who immigrate to a new country and overcome dark times by holding on to their hopes, dreams, history, resilience, and language. With this book as part of Petra’s and Javier’s history, they have literary role models and the blueprint for creating a new world within them.
