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Maria Beppina knows that knock. It’s Primo. She opens the door to her cousin standing there, getting soaked in the pouring rain.

“Dinner,” he says. “Eel.”

“Hey, Primo, how was . . .” She was going to finish the sentence “. . . putting the roof back on the Twins’ barn?” but her cousin is already splashing his way back downstairs.

Maria Beppina feels her face burn. She and her dad live upstairs from her cousins. On the one hand, it’s great, because Maria Beppina gets to be a part of their family. On the other hand, she’s not a part of their family—not totally.

Maria Beppina sneaks away without her dad noticing she’s barefoot (she’s the only kid who has to wear shoes) and rushes down the stairs into the driving, deafening rain. She fast opens the door to her cousins’ and—

“NO!” Primo’s entire family yells.

She feels something slimy pass over her bare foot. It is the grossest, yuckiest feeling she has ever had to feel. Maria Beppina looks down and sees a fat black eel, its tail now slithering over her toes and the rest of it out the door.

The next moment, Primo is pushing past her, and she slips and falls against the door to the ground, tripping Isidora and holding up the rest of the family.

“Get out of the way! Dinner is on the loose!”

Butt soaked, Maria Beppina gets herself up, and does her best to race after everyone, but even Primo’s grandmother is faster than she is.

Maria Beppina feels dumb and embarrassed. Please, oh please, let Primo catch that eel!

But he doesn’t.

The eel swims through the flooded streets all the way to the Cemetery of Dead Babies. Maria Beppina can’t see what’s going on, but she hears Primo’s family all yelling at him, “Go get it!”

He waits too long and the eel slithers down the well in front of the cemetery chapel.

Everyone turns on each other—Aunt Zufia blames Uncle Mimì, Uncle Mimì blames Aunt Zufia, Isidora blames Primo—but all Maria Beppina hears is Primo blame her for opening the door.

They all start back toward home, and Maria Beppina is glad at least for the rain, so no one can see her tears.