The Tree of Red Stars

Magdanela has trouble sleeping one night, and goes on a walk to clear her head. She finds out something she had never even heard of before,

"For the first time in my life, I was conscious of feeling afraid. I could not have expressed why exactly. I suspected that if Lilita's sorrow was really despair and senora Francisca's pride really secrecy, then a door was opening into a world I did not want to enter. The tias often hinted their knowledge of such a world, but the tias were safe and predictable, their talk as airy as Josefa's meringues" (67).

Magdalena had brought Emilia along to Francisca's house once she saw Lilita with her, and she had heard it all. Emilia is in utter shock as to figure out this is the reason for her mother leaving her alone at night. This caused worry in her mind.

" 'It's time we stopped doing such stupid things,' she said. Unspoken between us has been the understanding that such acts of trivial naughtiness were necessary to keep at a distance the shadows that were a part of our lives. So long as we could laugh together, we could forget Lilita's moods and my mother's preoccupation with her teenage nieces"(68).

Emilia is afraid of what she has heard, and she wants to learn more about it to try and protect her mom. Magdalena is hurt by this, because Emilia is calling her childish for wanting to do things they did only weeks ago. The environment the girls are in are causing them to grow up quickly. It is also even putting Magdalena into a slight depression.

"I was silent for a long time. 'Emilia,' I said at last, 'is anyone you know happy' " (72).

With all the strange, stressful things happening in Magdalena and Emilia's family life, and with the current government, the girls have a slightly dimmer outlook on life; the persuit of happiness.