The Other Half of Happy: Chapters 31–46

by Rebecca Balcárcel
Quijana has never felt connected to her Guatemalan identity, but when her cousins move to town and her parents plan a trip to Guatemala, she must navigate complex feelings about her heritage.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–15, Chapters 16–30, Chapters 31–46
35 words 19 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. muster
    summon up, call forth, or bring together
    “No Christmas jokes until after Thanksgiving!” I say, mustering all my energy to sound normal.
  2. conscience
    a feeling of shame when you do something immoral
    I try to see if his hand is bleeding or bruised, but he flings it out, whacking my cheek. “Oww!” Instinctively, I push back, and my conscience stabs.
  3. linoleum
    a floor covering made from linseed oil, cork, and resin
    I kneel on the linoleum with my head in my hands.
  4. indifferent
    showing no care or concern in attitude or action
    The life I want, the person I want to be, is a fading signal, distant and weak. “I can’t,” I say to the indifferent walls.
  5. frazzle
    exhaust physically or emotionally
    “How was it?” Mom asked, looking at her phone and sounding frazzled herself.
  6. snub
    reject outright and bluntly
    Spanish is Elena’s first language, so she acts like this class is for babies. Sometimes she snickers when I give a wrong answer. She even snubs the teacher. “That’s not how we say it in Juarez.”
  7. intently
    with strained or eager attention
    He touches the bracelet she’s wearing, looks intently at her face, and starts purring in fluent Spanish.
  8. plantain
    starchy banana-like fruit
    Dad finds big bananas called plantains and starts to show me how to pick a ripe one, kneeling down and saying how we’ll cook them when a woman steers her cart around us, purses her lips, and says, “Pochos,” under her breath.
  9. imposter
    a person who makes deceitful pretenses
    He huffed around the kitchen repeating, “I’m no imposter.”
  10. coy
    showing marked and often playful evasiveness or reluctance
    “Should we help her?” Elena asks Carlos coyly.
  11. straddle
    sit or stand astride of
    When I straddle my bike, I can’t help but picture Don Quixote mounting his horse, riding into an adventure.
  12. brandish
    move or swing back and forth
    They have just taken turns putting on the Sorting Hat when Dad barges in, brandishing the guitar.
  13. croon
    sing softly
    “This song—it’s perfect for your Guatemalan debut!” He strums the guitar and starts crooning in the middle of my room.
  14. smolder
    have strong suppressed feelings
    I know I’ve done something unforgivable, but at the same time, my own anger is still smoldering.
  15. inadequate
    lacking the requisite qualities or resources to meet a task
    I don’t want to be told how inadequate I am.
  16. self-righteous
    excessively or hypocritically pious
    Dad would either yell or cry, while Mom’s approach is businesslike, so it doesn’t require me to stop feeling self-righteous.
  17. reparation
    compensation for an insult or injury
    “Since you’re making reparations—that means paying for the damage—you and I don’t need to talk about this again. But you and your dad have to work things out—just the two of you.”
  18. ecumenical
    concerned with promoting unity among churches or religions
    I think we’re waiting for a prayer.
    “Let’s make this ecumenical,” Aunt Jess says. Her friends seem to know this word. “You know, include everyone’s spiritual path.”
  19. shroud
    cover as if with a burial garment
    As night shrouds the house, Mom and Dad appear at my bedside.
  20. materialize
    come into being; become reality
    “When did this get here?” I ask. A wood-sided chapel has materialized next to the bank we use.
  21. trill
    pronounce with a flutter of the tongue
    Without Grandma Miller, I’ll be shoved onto a plane. Yanked out of my country. Dropped into a boiling pot of trilled r’s.
  22. regression
    abnormal state in which development has stopped prematurely
    The website not only lists symptoms, it talks about why Memito was normal until age three—something called regression.
  23. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    She’s crying for real now, and I am, too. Memito is oblivious.
  24. subdued
    quieted and brought under control
    I wish I could say it was Grandma’s death making Dad subdued.
  25. mote
    a tiny piece of anything
    We're all—each singer, each listener, even the dust motes in the air—held in the same single spell.
  26. earnest
    devout or heartfelt
    The best part is going to choir, where Mr. Green passes around little bags of M&Ms in a huge bowl and we watch a video of the concert. It’s weird to see myself on-screen, an earnest face in the second row.
  27. demure
    shy or modest, often in a playful or provocative way
    Mirabel perches demurely in a chair by the window.
  28. flair
    distinctive and stylish elegance
    Aunt Jess talks with flair, maybe from teaching sociology classes at the community college.
  29. pavilion
    a large and often sumptuous tent
    She lets me order what I want at the food trucks, and we dance at the music pavilion.
  30. bewildered
    extremely confused and uncertain what to do
    “How did a form granting you permission to ride a BUS to FLORIDA get into Grandma’s mailbox?” Mom’s as much bewildered as angry.
  31. tentatively
    in a hesitant manner
    “I was going to bring snacks,” I say, tentatively.
  32. vicariously
    indirectly, as, by, or through a substitute
    “If nothing else, just take a billion pictures and send them to me so I can live vicariously.”
  33. dwindle
    become smaller or lose substance
    “This is for the courage to handle boyfriends from hell, dwindling supplies of pork, and big sisters who forget, if only momentarily, how important little sisters are.”
  34. strew
    spread by scattering
    The sand looked strewn with blue Christmas lights as the tide washed in and out.
  35. rapt
    feeling great delight and interest
    The harmonies intertwine and cast a spell over the room. The littlest cousins sit still and listen. Even Memito is rapt.
Created on Thu Sep 10 10:53:32 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Sep 11 16:53:14 EDT 2020)

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