After we left her office, we took a taxi to the office of the same doctor who had examined all three of us the year before. Even though he had a long line of patients waiting, Tante Rose used her charms, and the fact that they know some of the same people at the General Hospital, to get him to examine us. He then gave Tante Rose a paper saying we were okay.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19

WE ARE APPROVED!

This time, after leaving the consulate, we went directly to the airport to buy our airplane tickets.

We are leaving in two days.

Manman had to borrow money from Tante Rose for the tickets. They cost a lot more than Manman had because we were leaving so soon.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20

This morning, I was sitting in the living room when Tante Rose walked over and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Celiane Espérance,” she says in a serious voice, “do you know why I am doing all this, spending every gourde I have to see that you and Moy and Aline get to be with Victor? For months and months, I begged my contact at the consulate. Do you know why?”

“Because you are our family,” I say.

“That,” she says, “and because even when things were very hard for my brother, he never asked me for anything before. This is the first time he’s asked me to do something for him. And you know what he asked? To do everything so you and he and Moy and Aline can be together this Christmas.”

“Thank you, Tante Rose,” I say.

“You don’t have to thank me,” she says. “I felt so bad that you and Aline were in that camion when the bomb hit it. I want to do this for you.”

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21

Raymond drove us to the airport. Everything is happening so fast, I don’t know what to think anymore.

I am trying to feel the way I know everyone would want me to feel. Maybe I am lucky. Maybe I am the luckiest girl in Haiti. After five years of separation, I am finally going to see my father.

Still, I can’t shake the old fears and new ones, too: What if the plane falls out of the sky? What if we never make it to New York? What if we hate New York? What if we all hate each other when we get to New York?

I have told myself that once I see Papa, I will know in one instant if everything will be all right. If my stomach feels settled when I see him and my fears vanish at the first sight of him, then I will know that everything will be fine.

LATER