Manman says the fanal help Tonton Nwèl, Father Christmas, find the houses where there are children. But if the children are bad, the light also brings the old man with the whip, Papa Fwèt. Unlike Father Christmas, who leaves presents under children’s pillows, Papa Fwèt cracks his whip loudly and frightens them into being good next year.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15

Who should come to see us but Tante Rose? She says we are going to have a Christmas miracle. She has been talking to her contact at the American consulate. We have to go there Monday, and if all goes well, we should be able to join Papa in New York by Christmas.

“I told my contact about you and Celiane almost being killed by that bomb,” Tante Rose said. “I showed her the clinic and hospital papers. I begged and begged. Victor’s friend Franck wrote another letter, too, and made some phone calls, and it seems the three of you have a good chance of being approved.”

I didn’t know what to think. Seeing Papa at Christmas? It does not seem possible.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16

There is so much to do in so little time. The biggest decision: What to do with the house? Granmè Melina and Granpè Nozial are going to look after it and Papa’s corn and cows until Manman and Papa can decide what to do with everything. (Manman and Papa together again. What an idea!)

Moy has already picked out what he will be bringing with him to New York. He made a pile in a corner of the front room, his clothes and the notebooks with his sketches in them.

LATER

I went to Thérèse’s house and asked her mother if Thérèse could spend the afternoon with us. This gives us some time to say good-bye. It will also give Thérèse time to be around Moy, which I know she will like.

I suddenly have a secret wish that Moy will come back to marry Thérèse, so Thérèse will be my sister-in-law. I know it is a silly dream, but it will make it easier for me to part with Thérèse, who before you, sweet little book, I told all my secrets to. But the way I am feeling now, I cannot even tell Thérèse about it.

There is a part of me that does not want to leave, that is afraid to leave. It is the same part of me that’s worried Papa will be a stranger to me when I see him again, that in another country, my family—I mean my whole family, which includes Granmè Melina and Granpè Nozial and Tante Rose, too—will grow much further apart rather than closer together.