Chapters (10)
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.
I realize now just how afraid Manman is of traveling through Carrefour. This is probably why she accepts that Moy will be leaving without us. I, too, am afraid of being in another camion and having the same thing happen.
Some nights I dream that after the bombing I am lost and never found again, that I forget my name and am unable to tell anyone who I am. Other nights I dream that it is Manman who is lost and who forgets her name and is never found.
I had these same types of dreams after Papa left, that he would get to New York and find a new son and daughter and a new wife and forget about us.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29
President Aristide is officially declared the winner of the election. On the television news broadcast, they said he received two million votes.