The Albuquerque Trip

Pancho wakes up to a thunderstorm to find his punching bag soaking wet and even tougher than before so he imagines that the bunching bag sister’s killer and he starts punching it with a lot of determination, rage, anger, and sorrow until his knuckles are filled with his own blood. D.Q. had witnessed the event as he was in his rain proof cocoon (rain poncho) and only informs Pancho that tomorrow the will be leaving to Albuquerque for his medical treatments. When in Albuquerque Pancho meets D.Q. mother whom he finds very attractive and good looking, also he notices the tension between mother and son, and how eager D.Q. is for getting the emancipation papers signed by his mother but she refuses to sign them. After Pancho met D.Q.’s mother and stayed throughout the whole discussion between mother and son, he walks with Father Concha and he gives Pancho 300 dollars, 100 for him and 200 to spend doing fun stuff with D.Q. the whole month in Albuquerque.

“…The balance of hope and acceptance is the heart of what it means to be a Death Warrior. It’s an equilibrium that needs to be maintained.” (Stork, 83). I believe that D.Q. said this because there was a time when he had hope in recovering from his illness but a lot of time has passed since he lost his hope and started to accept/embrace the idea that his time on this Earth is coming to an end. I think that Stork used this sentence to tell us that some people that may have same or similar illnesses may have lost hope and started to accept their situation but that we can and have to help them keep a balance between acceptance and hope, or in other words let them accept their situation but do not let them lose all hope.

Up to here the book has given me a lot to think about like the idea of a mother trying to help his child and be with him but the child pushing her away, despising her, not wanting to see her. That must be very hard for any mother and I think that D.Q. should let her mother in her life, let her help him, because after all Helen (D.Q.’s mother) is his family, and family has no end. In the other side Pancho and D.Q.’s friendship has been growing constantly and D.Q. is teaching Pancho the concept of the Death Warrior Manifesto.