“Voting?” Manman holds her head with both hands as if to keep it from exploding.

“That woman!” shouts Manman. “We must leave this house. We cannot stay here anymore.”

Manman limps back to the room and drops herself on the bed.

“We have to stay for your leg,” I remind her.

“I know,” Manman says. “That woman and this leg are holding me prisoner here. We should have never come. Look what it has brought us.”

She raises her skirt to show me the bandage and then pulls back the bandage slowly to show the cut. It was larger and deeper than I had feared. It still must hurt a lot because Manman moans in pain at night and grimaces when she walks.

In spite of the way the wound looks and how much it frightens me, I say, “It could have been worse, Manman. We both could have died, like those children.”

“I know,” Manman says, resigning herself to having to stay in Tante Rose’s house a while longer.

Today more than most days, I wish Papa were here to console Manman, to reassure her more than I ever could.

5:00 P.M.

Manman and I are waiting in the living room when Tante Rose and Moy and the other nurse return.

Manman’s face relaxes a little bit when she sees that they are all right.

“Sister,” Tante Rose says, walking toward Manman, “the streets are empty. It was safe.”

“Sister,” Manman says, “since you call me sister. Just because I am in your house and you are looking after me does not make my children your own.”

8:30 P.M.

The evening news reports say that fewer people came out to vote than were expected. Perhaps it was because, like Manman, they worried about possible violence and were afraid.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27

The city is back to normal. I could make it all out from Tante Rose’s roof: the reopened shops, the street vendors, cars lined up behind one another in traffic jams, horns blowing from every direction.

Manman and Tante Rose are friendly again. They exchanged a few jokes while Tante Rose looked over Manman’s leg this morning.

Papa called while I was still asleep to check on us. Manman said he sounded calmer, less worried.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28

Moy decided to go back to Beau Jour. Manman tried to convince him to stay, but he said he needed to see about the cornfields and the cows, which Granpè Nozial and Granmè Melina have been looking after since we left.

I know the camion trip back will be very difficult for Manman and I want to be with her when she decides to make it.

Manman resigned herself to the fact that Moy would go without us, so she told Moy to pick up Papa’s cassette and the money at the transfer place. She said nothing about when she thought she would be able to go home.