Mexican Gothic

The next day Noemí cannot settle down. Her dream of the encounter with Virgil is “cold and disturbing” (190) instead of erotic. She feels violated. She restlessly walks through the house and ends up in the library, where she randomly plucks a book on eugenics off the shelves before returning to her room. She smokes a cigarette and begins reading the book. Reality once again shifts around her. She notices on her wall that a section of the mold is shifting with purposeful movement that one would expect from sentient beings only. She is so entranced by the movements that her cigarette burns down to a stub. The sting of the burn snaps her out of this vision of sentient mold. The mold is now completely still, and Noemí wonders if what she saw was a hallucination.

At just that moment, Florence and Virgil enter room, claiming they heard her yell. She says she didn’t yell and demands to see Catalina. Surprisingly, they allow her to visit her cousin, making it clear that they are doing so to humor her. When Noemí enters Catalina’s room, Catalina seems happy and calm, but something about the encounter feels staged to Noemí.