The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Frankie’s funeral is about to begin, and Music reveals a secret about the church—it’s the church where Frankie was born, and it’s also where, “nearly four hundred years ago, a man named Pascual Baylón died” (386). On the night Frankie was born, when the church was being raided, Baylón “signaled the church members to flee. By clapping inside his tomb” (387).

Time jumps back to when Frankie and Aurora briefly left their island with their daughter to show her where they’re from. They’re in Spain, and Frankie notes how Spain is improving after the death of the dictator, Franco. Everything looks so different, and Frankie feels strange—he never wanted to come back here, and he’s only here because of the urging of his wife.

They go to Baffa’s old home, and a woman answers the door. She says a man gave her a box to give Frankie. Later, they go the cemetery. They don’t find Baffa’s grave, but they find a wall where people were shot under Franco’s rule. When Frankie touches the wall, he feels the deaths of the people: “One of them, he sensed, belonged to Baffa” (395). He suddenly forgives Baffa, realizing that he owes everything he has to the man that saved him from the water. He tells Aurora and Kai about Baffa for the first time. 

Aurora and Kai leave Spain to visit Cecile, but Frankie stays. He wants to find El Maestro, but promises Aurora he’ll meet her at her sister’s in a few days. He goes to his teacher’s old home, but it’s gone. He then goes to the bar where El Maestro used to play, and the patrons recognize him and ask him to play: “He decided he would play at the taberna [bar]. To honor his teacher. And, if possible, to summon him” (405).

He plays the concert, but El Maestro doesn’t show up. He leaves after the show, but Alberto approaches him in the alley. He confesses to Frankie that he killed El Maestro and admits that he did it for money. He tries to steal Frankie’s money, too, but then begs Frankie to kill him because he can’t live with the guilt over what he’s done.

Frankie picks up Alberto’s gun, and the old man rushes toward him. Frankie pulls the trigger, and it’s presumed that he shoots Alberto because the old man falls to the ground: “Inside the taberna, an old guitar leaned against a wall, its fifth string now a burning shade of blue” (414).