Cemetery Boys

Julian and Maritza sneak out of the house while Lita sweeps up Yadriel into a dance to her opera music. Yadriel cannot help but think about how he used to dance with his mother like this when she was still alive. When Lita finally lets him go, Yadriel eats quick bites of his breakfast while watching the news. He is perplexed by the lack of coverage over Julian’s disappearance. After saying goodbye to his grandmother, he meets Julian and Maritza outside of the house.

He chats with Maritza about Julian’s incredibly endearing incessant energy. Julian bounces ahead of them, trying to kick a soccer ball but falling instead. According to Maritza, the brujx tracking dogs did pick up Miguel’s scent the night before but failed to find his body. The two friends wonder if Julian’s death is somehow involved with Miguel’s, as they died only a couple of hours apart. In school, Julian shouts in student’s faces, moves people’s pens, and distracts Yadriel to entertain himself. At lunch, Julian tries to cajole Yadriel and Maritza into skipping school and looking for his friends. Maritza and her friends talk about the yearly Halloween bonfire on the beach, filled with teenagers from the local high schools and lots of underage drinking. Yadriel dislikes parties and has no plans to go.

Eventually, Maritza brings up Julian, trying to get more information about him and the possible whereabouts of his friends. The girls gossip about Julian, talking about his good looks, obnoxious personality, and supposed gang ties. Julian gets more and more upset by the cruel rumors. One of Maritza’s friends claim that because Julian and his family are from Colombia, Julian and his older brother are drug smugglers, that his parents are in jail, and even that his mother left them when he was an infant. Once, Julian broke the nose of another student in class. The girls gossip that about how Julian’s father was killed by a rival gang.

Julian shouts at them to shut up and Julian kicks a soccer ball through the air, sending it flying across the quad before running away. The girls gasp in surprise but Maritza quickly blames the wind. Yadriel follows Julian and finds him crouched down near the bleachers. Yadriel does not push him into talking about his feelings, but simply sits with him. He does not think there is any truth to the rumors; Yadriel sees that Julian is “just a dead boy who was worried about his friends” (100). Yadriel promises Julian that they will go looking for his friends once school ends.

Julian is quiet and clearly upset for the rest of the day. Unable to take his silence, Yadriel asks about his friends, but Julian only gets tenser. Yadriel eventually tells Julian that it was “pretty cool that you were able to kick that soccer ball” (101), and he lists the other things he’ll be able to do as a strong spirit. This distracts Julian enough to lift him out of his sour mood. Yadriel jokingly chides him about outbursts in front of non-brujx and Julian sheepishly apologizes.

The three of them stop at Maritza’s house before heading out to look for Julian’s friends. Maritza and Yadriel greet her mother, sister, and father. Maritza’s sister is a medical student, and they argue frequently. Though they try to sneak out of the house as quickly as possible, Maritza mother’s is hesitant to let them leave because everyone is on high alert due to Miguel’s disappearance. Maritza promises to be back before dark and takes the family’s two large pit bull dogs with them.

Meanwhile, Yadriel and Julian head back to Yadriel’s place. They go through Yadriel’s yearbook so Yadriel can see Julian’s friends: Rocky, Flaca, Luca, and Omar. Yadriel is surprised to find that one of them, Rocky, is a girl, and he shyly asks Julian if she is his girlfriend. Julian says no—both he and Rocky are gay. Yadriel is surprised by the ease with which Julian comes out to him; in turn, Yadriel tells Julian that he is interested in boys too. After, they make fun of Julian’s yearbook photo. Julian asks to see Yadriel’s, but the thought immediately scares Yadriel. He hasn’t yet changed his legal name, so his school refused to use his new name. Yadriel sneaks down the hallway to see if anyone is home. When he returns, he finds Julian with his yearbook and a Sharpie, looking guilty at having been caught. When Yadriel checks his yearbook, he finds his deadname scribbled out and his real name written underneath it in black marker.

To distract Lita and the other brujas from noticing Julian, Yadriel walks into the kitchen and tells them that he’s not feeling well. They all begin to fuss over him, telling him to take off his shirt so they can apply VapoRub on his back. Yadriel dreads the thought and convinces Lita that he must meet Maritza for a school project. He manages to make it out of the house, and he and Julian spy Enrique and Diego in the cemetery. Diego is releasing a tethered spirit for the first time.

Yadriel is envious of his older brother for being accepted so easily as a brujo. He points out to Julian how the spirit’s edges are faded, on the edge of becoming malignant. After freeing the spirit, Enrique spots Yadriel and comes towards him. Julian rolls into a nearby sarcophagus to hide. Yadriel notices how tired his father looks and feels guilty for the worry he causes him. This guilt wars against anger; he does not want to keep forgiving his father for misgendering him. Enrique tries to apologize to Yadriel, saying that he’s learning and that he did not mean to hurt him.

Enrique leaves. Julian jumps out of his hiding spot and comments that Yadriel and Enrique’s conversation was awkward. Maritza arrives with her two pit bulls, Donatello and Michelangelo, which Maritza’s father saved from a dog fighting ring. Though the two dogs appear fierce and vicious, they are sweet and friendly. 

Yadriel, Maritza, and Julian make their way to Julian’s hangout spot. They go in without a plan, Julian convincing Yadriel that he will tell him what to say. In the large concrete space, they see graffiti: “A large skull was spray-painted off to the side in shades of neon purple, pink, and blue” (126). Underneath is a line in Spanish in Julian’s handwriting. Translated, it reads: There are girls with penises, boys with vulvas, and transphobes with no teeth. The protective threat makes Yadriel smile. Julian’s friends demand to know what he is doing there. Maritza and the dogs follow him, and Julian’s friends immediately jump up, defensive and on guard.

Julian finds his skateboard and is utterly delighted. He notes with concern that his friends have been sleeping in the abandoned building again. Flaca and Yadriel speak; she is “the first openly trans person Yadriel had ever met” (128). Yadriel tells them that they are Julian’s friends, but they do not believe him. Luca tells them that Julian is missing—they went back to search for him that night at Belvedere Park but did not find him. The police brushed the teenagers off, unwilling to even put out an alert for Julian. Yadriel almost asks if they called Julian’s brother but realizes that “they didn’t have cell phones to call or text him on” (132). Flaca, Omar, Rocky, and Luca only have each other.

Julian often mixes his metaphors and quotes things incorrectly. When Yadriel parrots one of these incorrect phrases, his friends immediately suspect something is wrong. Julian demands that Yadriel not tell them what has happened to him, while his friends shout at Yadriel and Maritza to explain themselves. Julian has another outburst and throws his skateboard at the ground, scaring everyone into silence. Omar demands that they leave.