Summaries.

Still Lives:

The family decided that Sandi needed to take art lessons and she was sent to take lessons from Dona Charito. The children were given a tour of the house before Dona Charito started her lesson on how to hold a paintbrush the proper way. Sandi became bored, started painting cats and was thrown out of the class for disobeying. She wanders around and sees Don Jose, sculpting large figures. She broke her arm when she fell off the branch and she couldn't draw anymore. During Christmas Eve at the National Cathedral, Sandi recognizes the sculptures from the shed, especially the Virgin, who has a face that looks like her.

An American Surprise:

Carlos returns from a trip to New York City with a surprise for his daughters. He had brought them mechanical toy banks that moves when a coin is dropped into the slot. Gladys, their maid, offered to buy the bank from Carla, but Carla gives the bank to her for free. When the bank was found with Gladys, they fired her because they couldn't trust her, even though Carla confessed that she had given it away voluntarily.

The Drum:

Yolanda's grandmother brought her a drum from New York. All day long, Yolanda drummed until one drumstick got lost and the other broke. Their maid, Pila, would tell stories of devils and ghosts and claimed they lived in the coal shed. Pila had been stealing things from the family, but she was allowed to leave with the stolen things because Laura pitied her. Yolanda found kittens in the shed and names her favorite kitten, Schwarz. She takes the kitten inside, but gets annoyed with the kitten's cries and throws it outside. The kitten and the mother cat disappears, but she has nightmares of the mother cat, that haunts her at night.

--Janet