- At the same time that Pedro sits on his front porch, Doña Ines, the one who Pedro had gone to buy things from as a little boy, sweeps her son Gamaliel's store and sees Abundio Martinez, the old mule driver, come in.
- Gamaliel is asleep at the counter, so he doesn't notice he has a customer. Ines has to wake him up, but he gets mad because he was up all night serving some drunken travelers.
- Abundio is deaf, so Ines has to shout at him to explain that her son is in a bad mood. He asks for a bottle of liquor, because his wife, Refugio, died the night before.
- He sold his mules for money to pay for the doctor, but it didn't help. He needs the liquor to drive away his sorrow.
- She gives him a two for one special, since they're friends, and tells Abundio to ask his dead wife to put a good word in for her in heaven.
- He says he will, and asks Ines to pray for Refugio, who died without last rites. Father Rentería was off fighting in the Revolution, so there was no one to hear his dying wife's confession.
- Abundio gets drunk really fast and takes a wrong turn and heads all the way out to the Media Luna.
- He comes face to face with Pedro Páramo, and asks him for money to pay to bury his wife.
- Damiana is there, and prays and makes the sign of the cross at Abundio, as though he were the devil.
- Damiana begins screaming that someone is murdering Pedro. Abundio hears the woman screaming, but can only think of his dead wife.
- Finally some men come and take a bloody knife away from Abundio, and help Pedro get up. It seems that he stabbed Pedro in his drunken stupor. Oops.
- The men drag Abundio back to town and he pukes all the way.