Chapter 12
Summary
- Mama references Kahlil Gibran's advice on keeping happiness private to avoid ruining it.
- Yara, driving around to pass time before picking up her daughters, is contemplating her conversation with her counselor about potential depression.
- Mama dismisses the idea of depression, comparing it with her own past struggles raising children and keeping house.
- Yara wonders if Mama had been depressed, which Mama laughs off, suggesting Americans medicalize sadness unnecessarily.
- Yara expresses the necessity of seeing a counselor to secure her job, rejecting the idea of being solely a housewife.
- Mama takes offense at Yara's rejection of the housewife role, seeing it as a slight to her own life choices.
- There's a tense pause before Mama accuses Yara of being cursed with the evil eye due to envy.
- Mama questions Yara about physical symptoms that might indicate the curse's presence, linking it to misfortune.
- Yara remembers her grandmother’s garden, which had withered overnight due to presumed envy, a superstition familiar to her upbringing.
- Mama warns Yara that displaying her life and blessings online increases the risk of envy and misfortune.
- Yara acknowledges that the images she posts online feel inauthentic and contemplates the dangers of envy.
- In the car, Yara reflects on her mother's cautionary advice while dealing with her own anxious feelings.
- Mama brings up the past, hinting at a disturbing prophecy from a fortune teller which had a lasting impact on her.
- Yara resists comparing herself to Mama, insisting that her life is different, despite Mama's warning about the curse of the evil eye.