The family who owned the monkey have moved to Kentucky, and the children have taken over the garden full of sunflowers and fruit trees where the monkey used to scream and bare its teeth. In time, the Monkey Garden began to take itself over as well, becoming wild and overgrown, a dumping ground for old cars, including an old blue pickup truck that the children made into a clubhouse.

Once, Esperanza wanted to play with Sally in the Monkey Garden, but Sally was talking to Tito and the other boys. The boys had stolen Sally’s keys and said that Sally had to kiss them all to get the keys back. Esperanza was angry and ran to tell Tito’s mother, who did not care, so Esperanza decided to protect Sally from the boys herself. She took three big sticks and a brick, but when she found Sally, both Sally and the boys told her to go away and leave them alone. Esperanza was ashamed and never wanted to play in the Monkey Garden again.