Summary: Part II, Chapter 6

In Chapter 6, which covers the period 1992–1995, Yunior recounts the events of Oscar’s life following his graduation from Rutgers.

After he finished college, Oscar moved back home and started teaching at his old high school, Don Bosco Tech. Not much had changed at Don Bosco since he had graduated. Oscar watched as popular kids tortured the school’s underclass. He also noticed students laughing at him behind his back. He tried to establish a club for science fiction and fantasy fans, but no one showed up.

Oscar’s only friend at Don Bosco was a colleague named Nataly, an “alterna-latina” whose interest in Wicca reminded him of Jenni. Nataly had a boyfriend whom she’d met during her four-year stay in a mental institution. Oscar didn’t make any advances on her, but he did have strange sexual fantasies about her.

After a year, Nataly transferred to another school, and Oscar’s life became formulaic and uninteresting. His loneliness grew into depression, and once again, he harbored suicidal thoughts. But slowly he regained emotional stability. He started to exercise more, and he began to write an ambitious quartet of science-fiction fantasies. Occasionally during this period, he dreamed about the mongoose he’d seen the night he jumped from the bridge.

Three years into his job at Don Bosco, Oscar decided to join his family and spend the first part of the summer visiting La Inca in Santo Domingo. They flew down together in June. Oscar’s cousin Pedro Pablo drove them to La Inca’s new house in the Mirado Norte neighborhood from which she now oversaw the operation of six bakeries throughout Santo Domingo.

Oscar gradually fell into the rhythm of Dominican life, and he decided to stay for the whole summer. Lola left, and Oscar spent the next week devoted to his writing. Then, he met and fell for a woman named Ybón Pimentel.

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