51 pages • 1 hour read
Natalia SylvesterBreathe and Count Back from Ten
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the novel’s treatment of sexual assault.
Protagonist Verónica Renteria’s story opens as she compares the empty “nothingness” (1) of being under anesthesia, an experience she has had many times, and the full, total awareness of being underwater. Verónica’s passion is swimming, and in particular, she aspires to be a mermaid. She swims laps in the pool at her apartment complex every day, staying underwater as much as possible. On one such occasion, Verónica notices a moving truck on the other side of the courtyard and a boy about her age standing behind it. When she finishes her laps, the boy is sitting in a chair on the edge of the pool. He has his shoes off and is leaning on Verónica’s towel. He seems startled when she speaks to him, and he assures her he isn’t there to watch her. They try to have a conversation, but it dwindles quickly. Moments later, the apartment security guard, Bob, arrives. Verónica, embarrassed by her surgery scars, takes the opportunity to get out of the pool without the boy seeing her. Bob asks Verónica to give Alex, the boy, a tour of the complex. His mother is the complex’s new building manager. After Bob leaves, Alex apologizes to Verónica for the obligation, but she decides to give him a tour anyway. She thinks about how her parents would react if they saw her at the pool with a boy, since the last time they found out she was with a boy, their opinion of her changed forever.
Chapter 2 Summary
Verónica gives Alex a tour of the apartment complex, known as Palmview Lakes. She takes him through the tennis courts, around all the buildings, and down the beach before heading back to the pool. All the while, Verónica notices that Alex seems to be listening to her and is concerned for her safety when she decides to walk along a high wall. Verónica feels that her parents are too protective of her; Alex, on the other hand, seems to genuinely care but doesn’t feel the need to control her. Alex says he’s from Texas, but Verónica wonders if his family immigrated like hers did. She thinks about how she wants to stay in Florida for college to be close to her parents and sister, Dani. When Alex mentions that his mom plans to use the complex funds to host parties, Verónica worries that the tenants’ concerns, such as the lack of sufficient parking or absence of a wheelchair ramp, will continue to be ignored. When they stop at the pool to hang out for a bit, Verónica remembers the last time she was at a pool with a boy. This boy, Jeremy, didn’t care about Verónica at all, but being with Alex is a totally different experience. Verónica decides to take Alex to one of her favorite spots on the complex, a hill that overlooks one of the many fountains on the land. The sound of the flowing water is calming, and Verónica notices that Alex hasn’t asked about the scars on her leg. Alex asks Verónica why the town is so steeped in mermaid and ocean imagery. Verónica notes the irony, given that the Central Florida town isn’t near the ocean, but she loves the mermaid culture. She doesn’t reveal this passion to Alex yet but does tell him that the shows at the Mermaid Cove, located in the freshwater springs, are breathtaking to watch. Alex seems skeptical, but he asks Verónica for her phone number and hints that he wouldn’t mind being her boyfriend.
Chapter 3 Summary
When Verónica was seven years old, her family took her to Mermaid Cove for the first time. The spring has a limestone cave with a carved-out underground theater for viewing performances. Her father was (and continues to be) reluctant to engage with American traditions, but her mother insisted on taking Verónica and Dani out to do something fun. At the time, Verónica was in a cast that covered her chest, right thigh, and entire left leg after undergoing a major surgery, so she felt an immediate connection to the way the mermaids swam despite the confinement of their legs. She was instantly amazed and enthralled by their beauty, finesse, and the believability of the act. They looked weightless and free, unencumbered by earth’s gravity. When her family left the theater, a boy behind them, complaining about being stuck behind Verónica’s wheelchair, immediately reminded her of her disability. To cheer her up, Verónica’s Mami bought her a wax statue of a mermaid. Verónica’s Papi put down the performance, calling it cheap, but Verónica mentioned how it reminded her of “la sirena de Huacachina” (26), a Peruvian legend that her mother used to tell her about a princess who turned into a mermaid. The story comforted Verónica during the recovery after her surgery. Six weeks later, Verónica’s cast was removed, and her leg muscles had atrophied. The doctor recommended swimming, so Verónica’s family moved to Palmview Lakes where Verónica could exercise safely.
Chapter 4 Summary
Verónica sits in her parents’ bedroom one afternoon with her best friend, Leslie, as they wait for Leslie’s sister, Tanya, to call them. Tanya recently started working as a mermaid and got them a chance to see a dress rehearsal. Verónica rarely gets to go to Mermaid Cove because her father views it as tacky and meaningless and wants Verónica to have a typical career. Verónica tells Leslie about meeting Alex and mentions that she sat with him by the pond. Leslie is surprised to hear that Verónica risked her parents seeing her with Alex, but Verónica explains that she has no plans to get physical with Alex any time soon. She recalls the night she was molested by Jeremy, who pushed himself against her in the hot tub and made fun of her uneven legs as he touched her sexually. She recalls how her parents found them before it went any further, and she still wonders what would have happened if they didn’t. Verónica never confided in Leslie about what happened. Verónica describes Leslie as strong and confident; she rolls with whatever life throws at her. She notes that her parents seem to find Leslie more amusing than likeable.
Chapter 5 Summary
Verónica and Leslie head to Mermaid Cove to see Tanya rehearse. When they get there, the theater is empty aside from Barb, the director, a famous mermaid from decades past. Barb, completely frustrated and dissatisfied, shouts orders into the tank at Tanya and the other mermaids. She eventually marches off. When she returns, she notices Verónica and Leslie sitting in the back of the theater and questions their being at a private rehearsal. They run out of the theater and back to the surface to wait for Tanya. Leslie goes back inside to grab some drinks and runs into Tanya. When she returns, she tells Verónica that Mermaid Cove is holding auditions for a new mermaid—a rare and exciting opportunity. Verónica feels angry more than anything; although she wants this chance more than anything in the world, she knows that she would disappoint her parents by choosing it over a summer internship. She thinks about how her parents only just recently got all their documents settled to live as citizens in the United States and the pressure she feels to live up to their expectations after all the sacrifices they made for her.
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
Verónica Renteria is a complex protagonist. She is 17 years old and still figuring out how she sees the world and herself in a life that has always been based around Living with Disability and the many challenges that go along with having hip dysplasia. One of these challenges is ableism, which Verónica experiences in both overt and subtle ways, such as when the boy at Mermaid Cove complained about her wheelchair being slow, or the fact that her apartment complex doesn’t have wheelchair ramps. Verónica’s parents are overprotective of her because of her disability and because it took them so many years to achieve permanent residency in the United States; they worry daily about something going wrong and causing them to lose those rights. As a result, Verónica is expected to maintain a perfect reputation, to stay away from boys, and to consider her disability above all else. Her little Personal and Sexual Autonomy is made worse by the fact that her parents view her as promiscuous and troublesome. Ironically, the moment they caught Verónica with a boy, she was telling him to leave her alone, but he wasn’t respecting her boundary. Verónica points to an additional layer in this issue, which is her belief that promiscuity isn’t the worst fault: “Heaven forbid an unpleasant or promiscuous daughter” (8). Her father’s persistent worry that she will be promiscuous also signals the importance of Words and Their Meanings. Papi believes that any male attention Verónica receives makes her promiscuous. The word carries a connotation that there is something distasteful or immoral in female sexuality or in women who seek to express their sexuality. Verónica’s desire for healthy intimacy is part of her growth into adulthood.
Because they associate any female sexuality with promiscuity, Mami and Papi fail to support Verónica after Jeremy assaults her in the hot tub. Their lack of support breached a fundamental trust, and her distrust culminates in lying to her parents about seeing Alex and her new job as a mermaid. When Verónica meets Alex, she is ashamed of her scars at first because of her past experiences with Jeremy and the many other people who saw them in a negative light. Alex turns out to be the opposite of Jeremy; he is patient, understanding, and doesn’t pressure Verónica to reveal more than she wants to. He allows her to have autonomy over how their relationship unfolds.
Verónica’s main passion is swimming, and, relatedly, mermaids. Verónica lives in a city that is known for a place called Mermaid Cove, a local attraction where trained mermaids perform shows behind glass in a giant cove. Now a historic site, Mermaid Cove was built in the 1940s. It has a certain charm, but Verónica notices upon revisiting that it could use renovating. Verónica has spent most of her childhood immersed in the fantasy of Mermaid Cove and visited once as a child. When she visits with Leslie to see Tanya rehearse, the illusion is broken: The rehearsal goes poorly, and the theater is dark and empty. Alongside this local mermaid culture, her own Peruvian culture carries a legend of a mermaid known as Huacachina, who began as a human princess but became a mermaid when her pool of tears became so large that it created an oasis in the desert. The Huacachina legend has several versions, as legends often do, and depending on the version, she can be seen as “la sirena” (26) (a siren who lures men to their doom) or as a lonely maiden who lost her love and spends the rest of her days alone. Verónica, not satisfied with the darker versions, later takes this legend and transforms it into a more positive story. In the water, Verónica is weightless and her pain diminishes. She feels strong and free, and totally alive, which she contrasts with the vulnerability and near-death-like state of being under anesthesia: “I feel every ounce of breath inside of me” (1). Swimming is what reminds Verónica that she is alive and that she is more than her disability.
