“Celiane, where were you?” Manman asked.

I explained that I had gone to the apartment of a girl from school.

“Celiane, no more going off to strangers’ apartments, people we don’t know,” Papa said, interrupting me again. “We must know where you are so we know where to look for you if something happens.”

“Yes, Papa,” I said.

Papa seemed anxious to get to Moy’s situation. Moy had a lot more to explain.

Why hadn’t he continued his classes?

Moy said he would eventually re-enroll. But for the next few weeks he wanted to finish a series of paintings.

“What is two hours a day to learn English if you have the rest of your life to paint?” Manman asked.

“What about tailoring?” Papa asked. “Making clothes?”

Moy declared he was no longer interested in that. All he wanted to do was paint.

Papa announced that from now on Moy would be forbidden to paint.

“Ki sa?” Moy shouted. “What?”

He was getting ready to make a case for himself, but Papa did not give him a chance.

“Moy, you go to your classes or you go back to Haiti,” Papa said.

Papa then went to his room and slammed the door behind him. Manman followed him there. Soon after, Moy and I could hear them arguing.

“Don’t threaten him like that,” Manman said.

“I can’t let him sit around and waste his life,” Papa said.

“Maybe we can make an exchange with him,” Manman said. “If he takes his English classes, he can go to school to study painting, the way he was studying to be a tailor.”

“Study painting? What good would that do him?”

“It is what he has always done,” Manman said. “It is the only thing that seems to make his heart happy.”

“It takes more than a happy heart to eat and have a roof over your head in this country,” Papa said. “If anything, it takes a lot of unhappiness to do that.”

Moy couldn’t take any more. He changed into his running clothes and left.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30

In homeroom, Immacula said she was sorry for getting me in trouble with my parents. I told her it was not her fault; it was mine for not calling and letting them know where I was.

While I was talking to Immacula, I kept thinking of Thérèse and how Thérèse would have been as interested in Moy’s situation as mine. Immacula didn’t even know Moy and it would take too much explaining to tell her Moy’s story, ending with what happened last night.

Aside from Immacula and Faidherbe, all the other students were talking about the fight and shooting. A few of the kids said that one of Gary’s gang friends had fired the gun. Thank goodness the boy who had been shot was not killed.

Gary was sitting quietly at his desk, reading a comic book, pretending not to hear the conversations. He was not wearing his usual blue bandanna. In fact, he was dressed like Faidherbe, in a yellow shirt and navy slacks, as though his mother had picked out his clothes for him that morning.