Part 5 Chapter 1
There is a traffic jam approaching the graveyard as crowds pour in for candlelit festivities among the graves. Raphael knows that the police wouldn’t have buried José Angelico, so they look for a family grave instead, but the graveyard is a crowded maze. Rat decides to ask a guard; it takes a few hours to buy flowers, bribe the guard, and get directions. They search until dark, feeling grey, dirty, and invisible among the wealthy crowd. Gardo climbs up a marble angel to get a better view. Then the boys see “the brightest light”: thousands of poor people’s candles from the other side of a wall. The graveyard is divided into two parts, they were on the wrong side all along.
Part 5 Chapeter 2
People live in shacks on the other side of the graveyard among the poor people’s graves. The broken graves sadden Raphael the most. When people can’t afford the rent, the guards break the boxes and dump the bodies aside in a rotting pile. Finally, Gardo finds the Angelico grave. Underneath the words “Maria Angelico, wife of José Angelico,” “the brightest light” is etched, which makes Raphael shiver. The boys see Pia Dante’s grave stacked on top and they read out the familiar words “seeds,” “harvest,” and “accomplished.” They are deeply saddened by the thought of José’s little girl, and they don’t know what to do next. Although the police wouldn’t have hesitated, the boys don’t want to bust open a bunch of graves. As they look around for clues, a tiny girl appears and she asks who they’re looking for.
Part 5 Chapter 3
The little girl, who has long black hair and a school uniform on, is sitting patiently atop a higher grave. Raphael explains to her that they’re looking for José Angelico. The girl didn’t think José was coming—she’s been waiting for a week and he hasn’t come. Rat asks who the girl is, and she responds, “Pia Dante.” Raphael goes cold and he nearly falls down. He thinks they’re looking at Pia Dante’s ghost sitting across from her own grave, waiting to see her father.
Part 5 Chapter 4
Of course, Pia Dante isn’t a ghost. She looks weak and smells bad, so the boys decide to clear their heads and get some food, especially for Pia. As Pia starts to eat, however, she became feverish. Rat, who’s been starved before, knows what to do: he feeds Pia water and a chopped-up banana, like baby food. Raphael and Gardo still think Rat saved her life. It turns out that Pia was brought to the area by her host family, who left her there when her father didn’t show up. Some children found her and they took her to a graveyard shack. She’s been waiting for José ever since. The boys pay someone to let Pia sleep nearby and they get her a blanket to shield her from the cool typhoon wind. Rat cries as he tucks her in. Gardo buys some brandy because the boys need courage to break open a grave after midnight on the Day of the Dead. They know they will only keep a bit of the money because it isn’t theirs. They go into the graveyard, feeling ghosts all around, and pry open Pia Dante’s grave with a broken knife and a spike. Curiously, there is a coffin but no smell (Behala boys know how dead things smell, even bodies). They haul the coffin down and they pry it open. Sure enough, the money is there. What does $6,000,000 look like? To Raphael, it looks like food, a new life, a future. They know they won’t steal it because of all the things Gabriel Olondriz said. Raphael knows Olondriz is there among the ghosts, arm in arm with José Angelico.
Part 5 Chapter 5
Jun says that he no longer goes by “Rat.” Even though he’s narrating the last part of the boys’ story, they “are a team now.” After finding the $6,000,000, the boys try to figure out what to do with the money. They can’t take it to a bank since it would just be taken from them. Rat suggests throwing it in Behala, for anyone to find. They laugh and they bundle the money that Senator Zapanta stole from his people in two sacks, grab Pia Dante, and ride back to Behala in a cart with some street kids, entering from the canal at the back. Jun goes straight to the Mission School and puts back Father Juilliard’s money (leaving another drawing). He thinks his next idea saved their lives: he grabs some donated school uniforms and backpacks from a cupboard and he takes them to the others. The group stuffs four backpacks with money for themselves and they unfurl the rest (most of it) into the heavy typhoon wind, which scatters money like a storm all over Behala. Jun wishes he could have seen the first boy to pick up a $100 bill instead of stupp, but he knows they can’t hang around. At the bottom of the sack, Raphael finds another letter from José Angelico, which Gardo holds onto. They change into the school uniforms, wash their faces, and leave (with Pia Dante in tow) to catch a train.
Part 5 Chapter 6
Raphael, Gardo, Jun, and Pia Dante get on the train, looking just like all the other school kids (except their backpacks are stuffed with cash) and they ride all night to Sampalo. They step onto a beach that’s “more beautiful than creation.” That was some time ago. Now, the lying is over. They’ve learned to fish and bought fishing boats, and they will live happily until the end of their days.
Part 5 Apendix Summary
The second letter from José Angelico asks whomever finds this letter to take care of his daughter, Pia Dante. Angelico explains how, inspired by Gabriel Olondriz’s efforts, he meticulously planned over years to steal back the money that Senator Zapanta stole from the poor. The senator “stopped a nation in its tracks” and he stopped other countries’ aid because he stole aid money too. He believed that “to steal is to rise” by stepping on the poor. Zapanta’s one weakness was thinking so little of the poor that he never guessed one of them could outsmart him. Over years of observation, José figured out the pattern of Zapanta’s revolving safe combinations and many other complicated details that enabled him to steal the money. José wishes he could see Zapanta howl after realizing what happened. José reminds whomever finds this letter than the money belongs to the poor, and he signs off
The main characters start a new life.