Tumble

Addie observes a poster of the pantheon of Greek gods hanging in Mrs. Murry’s classroom and reflects on how it looks like a family photograph. She thinks about the Christmas photograph Lourdes takes with her every year wearing matching sweaters and standing in front of a tumbleweed snowman that comes up annually on Route 13. Each photograph is hung up in the living room, but the one from Addie’s first Christmas is missing; Lourdes claims there is no photo from that year, but Addie knows she is lying.

Mrs. Murry reads to the class before they begin planning their mythology projects. Addie’s best friend, Cyaandi “Cy” Fernández, decides she is making oracle cards with the different gods and goddesses on them, with her doing readings like the oracle. Addie asks Cy where she would hide something she didn’t want anyone else to find, if she were an adult. Cy divines this is about the adoption, but claims that Addie will never find anything if she doesn’t know what she is looking for.

Addie remembers how Alex and Lourdes broke the news of the adoption on Addie’s birthday. They presented Alex’s desire to officially adopt Addie as a gift. Addie questioned the need for it, since Alex was already married to Lourdes and has been her stepfather for a while. She is confused and intrigued when she learns of the technicalities of adoption, and how this makes Alex legally responsible for her, even though he already feels and operates that way. Addie promises to think about it; she already views Alex as her father, but she has questions about her biological father, whom Lourdes has refused to talk about.

After school, Addie and Cy search Lourdes and Alex’s room, hoping to find either a birth certificate or a photograph. In the trunk at the foot of the bed, they find one of Lourdes with her grandmother, Nana, who raised her after her parents died. Nana died when Addie was a baby and is the only person from Lourdes’s past whom she talks about.

The trunk yields more photographs of a younger Lourdes with people Addie doesn’t recognize, including one where Lourdes is standing next to a boy her age, wearing matching sweaters in front of a tumbleweed snowman. On closer inspection, Addie notices that the boy is carrying a baby—her.

Cy and Addie assume that this is Addie’s father. Cy wonders why Lourdes never talks about him, and Addie explains that Lourdes only ever says, “he was someone she’d once known and then she didn’t” (28). The girls put everything back, but Addie pockets the photograph.

Lourdes is a fossil preparator, and Addie has heard her talk about how exciting it is to find something important on excavation gigs. Addie remembers this in context of the excitement she feels at having found the photograph. She hides it in her closet, where this year’s Christmas sweater is already hanging; Lourdes always buys one for herself, Addie, Alex, and Marlene Rosada, one of the oldest-serving employees at the diner who has been around since it opened and is like family. Lourdes even buys extras every year, in case Addie or someone else invites another person to join the photo.

Addie tapes the photograph to the back wall of her closet. Her questions about her father have gotten more intense ever since the topic of adoption came up. When studying genetics in school, Addie learned about an experiment on mice which revealed more than half of their genetic makeup comes from the father. She wonders which of her traits, in turn, are her from her father.

Alex comes into Addie’s room on the pretext of having a new shake for her that he has invented and wants to add to the menu. The conversation moves to the adoption. Alex assures her that she can ask him anything, but when Addie asks about her biological father, he refuses to answer, insisting only Lourdes ought to address that topic. However, Alex insinuates that Lourdes might be more open to the conversation because of the adoption proposal. Addie doesn’t believe Lourdes will tell her anything and resolves to find out whatever she can on her own.

The seventh-graders begin reading for the annual production of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The drama teacher, Mrs. González, runs the annual tradition every year, and it is presented with a surprise twist each time. Cy hopes that she will become the director.

As they head to the cafeteria, the girls almost run into Gus Gutiérrez, a sullen, aloof seventh-grader who recently moved to Thorne. Addie reflects on how he “never look[s] lonely, but he seem[s] angry” (43). Then Addie and Cy discuss the photograph. Addie has learned through some online research that for Alex to adopt her, her father has to give up his parental rights. This means Lourdes has been in contact with him, and Cy points out that the man doesn’t seem interested in meeting Addie.

Nevertheless, Addie is eager to find out more about her father. The girls look for a magnifying glass so they can decipher the seal on Addie’s father’s sweatpants in the picture. Ms. Gaudet, the science teacher, directs them to the supply closet, but she asks them to lock the door after because someone has stolen the earthworms meant for class dissection and left behind a “manifesto” regarding freeing lab animals.

The girls discover the seal is of Esperanza High School. With the help of the librarian, Ms. Baig, the girls find out that the historical society has records from the different high schools in the area, and they decide to head there after school. They run into Gus again, who appears to be working on a display about animal cruelty. He ignores Addie’s greeting as usual.

At the Dos Pueblos Historical Society, an older man named Rudy directs the girls to the vault, where the high school yearbooks are stored. They look through a copy from Lourdes’s senior year and find a picture of her in which she is wearing a half-heart shaped locket.

Convinced that Addie’s father must be wearing the other half, Cy flips through the pictures until she finds a boy wearing it as an earring; his name is Emmanuel Bravo, and his senior quote says, “There’s no crying in wrestling” (55). The girls look for more photographs of Lourdes and the boy, only to discover that he was on the school wrestling team, and that he and Lourdes were crowned Homecoming King and Queen. Addie is shaken by how little she knows of her mother’s past.

When the girls ask Rudy for help in scanning the pictures, he identifies the boy as “Manny ‘The Mountain’ Bravo,” a wrestler from a famous wrestling family, the Bravos. Manny’s father, Francisco “El Terremoto” (“The Earthquake”), was one of the biggest wrestlers in the sport, back in the day. Manny’s mother and his older brothers, Mateo and Speedy, were wrestlers, too. Rudy assumes the girls are doing research on the Bravos and promises to keep aside whatever other material they have that was donated by the Cactus Wrestling League for the girls to look through the following day.

Unable to sleep at night, Addie reads about the Bravos and Manny on her phone. She finds pictures and videos of him wrestling, as well as website links to other family members, but she herself is listed nowhere.

The next morning, Marlene notices that Addie looks exceptionally tired, and Addie brushes Alex off when he asks if something is wrong; she is disappointed that he never told her anything about Manny, despite constantly having the diner TV on the wrestling channel. However, she opens up to Marlene, admitting she wants to talk about her biological father. She is shocked to hear Marlene call him a “jerk” for abandoning his child.

Marlene believes Lourdes not wanting to talk about Manny is a good thing, and she suggests that “maybe it’s for the best” (64). Addie thinks this is the worst consolation adults can offer and tries not to cry, remembering Manny’s yearbook quote.

Addie and Cy head to the historical society after school, where Rudy takes them to a number of boxes labeled “Cactus Wrestling League” and a separate box in which he has compiled everything he could find about the Bravos. Addie finds a photograph of Francisco wearing the world championship belt and another of him and his three sons. Cy finds a short biography on the Bravo family published by the wrestling league.

Addie asks to borrow the biography, but Rudy explains nothing from the archives can be taken out; furthermore, the book is so old and brittle, it might not even withstand the scanners. When Rudy is not looking, Addie pockets it. On Addie’s request, Rudy looks up a contact address for the family; they are supposedly still in Esperanza, but he is only able to find an email address for a fan club.

At home, Addie rushes through dinner so she can head upstairs and read the book. She learns that Francisco, born in Mexico and raised in Esperanza, fell in love with a Mexican woman named Rosa Terrones. They went on to have three sons who embarked on the same journey as their father, wrestling around the world and acquiring fame. However, the biography was published 10 years ago, and Addie is hungry for more information on what has happened to the Bravos since.

Addie carefully packs the book away in a plastic bag and composes an email on her phone to the fan club. Though she initially struggles with the salutation, she decides to begin the email with “Dear Manny.” In it, she introduces herself and explains that she is his daughter.