LATER

Franck came by tonight to see how Papa is doing. Franck said the repairs on the van wouldn’t be too expensive and he would pay for them.

Papa insisted that he wanted to pay for the repairs himself since the accident was his fault. He was probably feeling ashamed that Franck was always taking care of things for him.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7

Tonight we listened to a report of President Aristide’s inauguration on the radio. The reporter said that before President Aristide spoke, two white doves, which had been released by schoolchildren, stopped and rested on the podium for a while.

I would like to think that those doves represent the seven-year-old girl and teenage boy who had died before the elections last November, their spirits returning to express hope for a more peaceful Haiti.

In his speech President Aristide said, “Honor and respect and bravo for the Tenth Department Haitians living abroad. There is no place like home.”

Papa and Manman listened to the speech closely. They both looked pensive, as if imagining themselves in the crowd outside the national palace in Port-au-Prince.

“After two hundred years of political violence,” President Aristide said, “there is only one road that will lead to complete deliverance. This is the road of peace.”

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8

We called Tante Rose this morning to see how she is doing. After the inauguration, she is cautiously hopeful, she said.

Papa did not tell her about Moy, that he had left the house and that we didn’t even know where he was.

LATER

Still not a word from Moy. Manman is getting more and more nervous about him, and even though he doesn’t say it, I think Papa is, too.

Oh, Moy, where are you?

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9

During homeroom, a policewoman came into our classroom and took Gary away. Mr. Marius followed them outside, and when he came back, he told us that Gary was not being arrested, but was among many kids in the school who were going to be questioned about the shooting.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10

Still no word from Moy.

Will we ever see him again?

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11

Manman and Papa are barely speaking to each other. I suppose the most important thing they could talk about is Moy and that’s become too painful a subject.

I blame Papa for driving Moy away. I blame Manman for not doing more to stop Moy from leaving. I blame Moy for leaving. I blame myself—I am not sure why I blame myself, but I do anyway.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12

There is no school today. According to Mr. Casimir, today is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States.

After Haiti gained its independence in 1804, the United States refused to acknowledge Haiti, because it was thought that a free Black republic would encourage American slaves to revolt against their masters.

According to Mr. Casimir, it was Lincoln who sent the first United States ambassador to Haiti in 1862. Later he picked Frederick Douglass, a Black American, to be his representative there.