The Distance Between Us: Book Two: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

One day, the girls in Reyna’s fifth-grade class are taken into the auditorium and shown a video about puberty. Many of Reyna’s classmates are uncomfortable or confused, but Reyna knows all about puberty and menstruation. After the assembly, Reyna is given a pamphlet and a sanitary napkin wrapped in cellophane. That afternoon, Reyna shows Mago the sanitary napkin as soon as Mago gets home from school, and excitedly tells her sister that she will soon be a real señorita. Reyna places the napkin in her drawer for safekeeping.

The following week, Carlos—not Mago—comes to pick Reyna up from Mrs. Giuliano’s after school. He explains that Mago isn’t feeling well, and didn’t go to school. When she gets home, Reyna goes to her drawer and—as she does every afternoon—looks for her sanitary napkin so that she can hold it and look at it. Today, though, it isn’t there. Mago comes out of the bathroom looking pale, and Reyna asks her what’s wrong. Mago explains that she has a fever and cramps. Reyna asks Mago if she’s seen the sanitary napkin, and Mago apologizes—she explains that she took it, because she got her period for the first time earlier that morning. Reyna is angry, and runs out into the yard to cry.

When Papi gets home, he is furious with Mago for missing school. He takes his belt off and gives her a horrible lashing. Carlos tries to intervene, but Papi won’t stop. It’s only when Reyna explains that Mago is menstruating that Papi puts his belt down. Stunned, he goes into his room, closes the door, and does not come back out. Mila comes home a little while later, and when the children tell her what Papi did to Mago, she makes some excuses for him quickly, explaining that he was “raised” that way, and then heads out to the store to buy Mago some more napkins. When Mila returns with them, Mago takes one out of the pack and gives it to Reyna. Reyna puts her new sanitary napkin back in her drawer, hoping that her “rite of passage” won’t be as painful as her sister’s.