This is Tedious...

I forgot to mention a pretty important part of the story; Matt discovers the truth about eejits and the reality of what El Patron has done in his lifetime before the birthday party.

While taking a tour of the Opium farms with Tam Lin, Matt's Scottish bodyguard, Matt discovers a dead man on the ground. Tam Lin explains that the person is an eejit, a human with a computer chip implanted into his or her brain. Eejits are similar to mindless zombies and only obey voice commanded orders. If an eejit were told to stay it would stay at the same spot until it was told otherwise, even in the face of potentially deadly situations. Eejits are considered beasts of burden, and consist of illegal immigrants that tried to get across Opium to either Aztlán or the United States, as well as any of El Patrón's servants that had displeased him in any way. As Matt continues to grow up, it becomes very clear that despite El Patrón's favoritism, he is barely tolerated. Considered a beloved pet by some and a beastly intruder by others, he is kept ignorant of the nature of clones until a cruel joke reveals why he is different.

Long story short, the birthday party does end up being a disaster. Matt gets angry at Maria, and demands her to 'give him a birthday kiss' in front of all the birthday guests. Everyone is appalled at the fact that a lowly clone would even speak to a human girl like that. El Patron, on the other hand, is encouraging Matt, saying that he needs to stand up for himself and show who's boss. Matt immediately regrets his decision to humiliate Maria, and she doesn't talk to him for days.

The day after the party, we find that Felicia [Mr. Alacran's wife] and Tom have plotted against Matt, and trick him and Maria to go to the hospital near the house. There they find a clone on a table. But it isn't a clone like Matt, it is what a clone is supposed to be. It is described as a thing that "...rolled its eyes and thrashed helplessly in the straps that restrained it. Its mouth opened in a horrible O when it saw the children, and it screamed louder than Matt thought possible." (pg 119) This is Matt's first encounter with another clone, and the reader can now fully understand why clones are considered inferior. At the end of this chapter, Maria is too disgusted to be with Matt, and she leaves with Tom.

Maria is still angry at Matt for the episode at the birthday party, and Matt wants desperately to speak to her. He devises a plan to kidnap her dog and leave a ransom note in Maria's room. He thinks to himself that Maria would have to talk to him then. Maria's dog Furball is a tiny little rat-dog that is always yapping and running around. The only way for Matt to successfully steal the little dog is its asleep. [[in an effort to reduce the length of this post to a short novel, I'm going to skip some minor details and wrap up the story]] Matt steals some drugs from Felicia, gives the dog barely anything, and hides him. He leaves a note on Maria's pillow and waits. The dog is later found dead, and Matt doesn't see Maria before she leaves for boarding school. Years later, while the two are together, they overhear Felicia telling Tom how she killed Furball. Only then does Maria believe that Matt didn't kill her dog.

There is so much more story left, and these blogs are so annoying to keep up with!! More later.