Chapter 5
Back in the present (1994), Dede considers how Fela, their longtime servant, thinks that she is possessed by the spirits of the dead Mirabal sisters. She had accidentally come across Fela's shrine to the girls one Friday in the shed behind the house. She had ordered Fela to move the shrine, but Minou scolded her for being intolerant. Minou often stops at the shrine, which is now down the street. She asks Dede where Lio Morales now lives, since Minerva has asked her to deliver a message to him—just to say hello, and to state how much she thinks of him. When the interview woman presses on, asking Dede, "When did all the problems start?" Dede begins to speak about Lio Morales. She met him one "hot and humid afternoon" while she was organizing her father's shop with Minerva. They are finishing up before they head to Tio Pepe's to play volleyball with their friends. Dede knows that her cousin Jaimito, on whom she has started to have a crush (even though he once annoyed her), will be there. Mario, one of their distributors, arrives with Lio, and introduces him as his cousin. He knows Elsa Sanchez and Sinita Perozo from the university. When Dede mentions that they are committed to playing volleyball, Minerva invites Mario and Lio. Minerva gets their father's permission, and the girls go to Tio Pepe's with Mario and Lio.A few weeks later, Lio is still joining them for volleyball. Jaimito suggests that the girls come to play. As they take off their shoes and begin to assign positions, Dede notices that Minerva and Lio are missing. She is unsure if it is actually an accident, but she hits the ball into the hedges, startling the hiding couple. Once Lio emerges from the hedges, Jaimito starts a fight with him, and the game ends in awkwardness. Lio and Jaimito both begin to come to the Mirabals house more and more. When Maria Teresa accidentally reads aloud to Mama a newspaper article that reveals that Lio is "a