The House in the Pines

In the present, Maya visits the diner where Cristina died in hopes of gathering information. Maya recognizes a waitress from the video and asks her about Cristina’s death, claiming to have gone to school with Cristina. The waitress thinks the diner might be haunted; she believes that Cristina saw the ghost because of the odd way Cristina stared at something in the distance that no one else could see right before she died. Maya doesn’t believe in ghosts, but the waitress’s outlandish theory resembles Maya’s equally strange belief that Frank killed Aubrey, causing Maya to doubt herself.

In a flashback, Maya flies to Guatemala with Brenda for the funeral. Brenda is uncomfortable—she only knew Jairo and his family for a month before Jairo was killed. This is Brenda’s first time back in Guatemala.

Jairo’s family warmly welcomes Maya and Brenda. Maya asks her aunt Carolina about a book her father was writing before he died. They talk in Spanish, though Maya struggles with the language. Carolina remembers the book title was taken from an old poem. Maya notices an ethereal floral smell as they talk—it’s a blooming cactus called The Queen of the Night. The family thought the plant was dead as it hasn’t bloomed in years, making it all the more magical that on the evening of the funeral, the plant “has erupted with a single dinner-plate sized flower. The long white petals yawn with the most dramatic bloom Maya has ever seen, like the gaping eye of some god or a firework frozen in time” (93). This was Maya’s grandmother’s favorite flower.

Later, Maya’s grandfather shares a tender moment with Maya, showing her a photo album her grandmother made with photos of her beloved Maya. Her grandfather gives Maya a manuscript titled Olvidé que era hijo de reyes, or I Forgot I Was the Son of Kings. This is the book her father was writing when he died.

In the present, Maya begins to lose her conviction that Frank is guilty. When Maya returns home from the diner, she and Brenda talk about Dan. Maya worries that since she hasn’t been honest with him about taking Klonopin, telling him will affect their relationship. Things are already tense after Maya’s sudden departure—Dan isn’t returning Maya’s texts.

Later in bed, Maya is transported to Frank’s house in the woods. Her bedroom wall transforms into that of a log cabin, and she senses someone in the room with her. She is scared, but unable to move or scream.

The book flashes back to the day Maya met Frank.

Maya is reading her father’s book at the local library. She has translated the book into English, but is struggling to understand the plot’s hidden meaning. The book is about a boy named Pixán who lives in a magical village in the clouds. Pixán must travel down to Guatemala City to collect an inheritance left by his great-aunt. In the city, Pixán is hit by a car. He survives, but has amnesia and forgets everything about his true home. A couple informally adopts Pixán and names him Héctor. He never returns home. One day, when he’s older, Pixán/Héctor sees a volcano reaching into the clouds, stirring within him a sense of longing he can’t quite place.

A young man named Frank interrupts Maya’s reading. Frank is a part-time employee at the library. He has noticed Maya reading about Guatemala and shares that he backpacked around Latin America, including Guatemala, just a year earlier. Frank is only here for the summer, since he “tend[s] not to stay anywhere too long” (106). Maya and Frank have an engaging conversation, flirting a little and getting to know each other before Frank gets back to work.

In the present, Maya is woken by the landline phone. This reminds her of Frank calling her on the landline the summer Aubrey died. Maya worries that Frank is calling her now, having somehow found out Maya is back in Pittsfield. In a daze, as if “she was still dreaming” (110), Maya picks up the phone and is greeted with silence. Brenda enters, confused about why Maya has picked up the receiver. Brenda never heard the phone ring, suggesting Maya is hallucinating.

In a flashback, Aubrey helps Maya get ready before going out with Frank.

Frank takes Maya for a drive and tells her about himself. Frank’s parents are divorced and he lives with his mother in Oregon. However, Frank’s father is dying, so Frank is staying with him in Pittsfield this summer. As they drive, Maya is suddenly struck with fear when she realizes she doesn’t know where they are, but Frank tells her they’re driving to Balance Rock and Maya feels safe again.

They park and smoke weed before exploring the rock formation, chatting about Maya moving to Boston for college and about a cabin Frank is building. Maya is the first person Frank has told about the cabin. Maya thinks Frank is about to kiss her, but he doesn’t. Instead, he shows her the key to the cabin, which is strange, since he has only built its foundation. Maya can see the cabin vividly in her mind, although she struggles to follow what Frank is saying: “[H]er short-term memory isn’t working […] Even so, she gets the gist, his words conjuring images, vivid, if disconnected” (119). Time passes without Maya realizing and she is shocked when she returns home after midnight.

In the present, Maya walks to the Berkshire Museum, where Cristina’s friend Steven works as a security guard. While walking, Maya reflects on how frequently she had episodes of lost time with Frank, as if she were drugged. There are hours-long gaps in her memory from every date she had with Frank.

At the museum, Steven is reluctant to talk to Maya about Frank and Cristina, but Maya is persistent. Steven explains that Frank latched on to the fact that Cristina was estranged from her parents and friends from college. Cristina had been sober for two years, but when she met Frank, she started acting out of character. She even skipped work one weekend, disappearing without telling anyone. When she came back, she had a key tattooed on her arm—the key Frank showed Maya when he was building his cabin.

Cristina denied relapsing into substance use, but Steven thinks Frank and Cristina were using meth. Steven suggests this is why Cristina died: Cristina’s heart was damaged from substance use already, so meth would have fatally strained her heart. The last time Steven saw Cristina, she was cleaning out her things and wanting to make amends—as if she knew she was about to die.