Each month when Papa sends the cassettes, I worry that he will forget to mention my name, or forget to talk about the few things I had said to him in the last cassette we had all made for him together.

“Moy, I hope your lessons are going well,” Papa says.

Moy smiles, losing some of his reserve.

Papa tells Moy, “Manman says you are still taking time to look after the land the way Papa taught you. This makes Papa proud. You might not think it fashionable, but, Moy, everything you do now will be valuable to you in the future.”

Most of the time when Papa is talking in the cassettes, I think he forgets himself, forgets that he is talking to us and simply talks to himself, to console himself, to counsel himself just as he is counseling us, to make himself feel better just as he is trying to make us feel better.

It was my turn for Papa to speak to me.

“Celiane, Papa is glad that you got such good marks in school last month,” he says. “Papa will reward you by sending you a typewriter like you asked.”

I scream so loud that some birds stir in the almond trees in the yard; I scare them away with my voice.

Now comes the moment both Moy and I were expecting. This moment comes in all the cassettes.

“Aline,” Papa says, “after these words you can stop the cassette. The rest is for your ears alone.”

“Good-bye, Moy. Good-bye, Cécé,” Papa says before he speaks to Manman alone. “You are in all of Papa’s dreams and you have all of Papa’s love.”

Manman turns off the cassette. The rest she listens to when Moy and I are away from the house. She listens to the cassettes almost every day, until the next one comes or until the batteries die.

Manman always looks sad when it is time to stop listening to the part of the cassette that we all listen to together. It is as if Papa was with all of us for a while and has disappeared again. I know she feels better, though, once she listens to her part alone. Papa says things to her, good news and bad, that he chooses not to share with Moy and me.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20

My closest friend in school is a girl named Thérèse. Thérèse and I are together so much that some of the other pupils think we are sisters. We are both tall for our age, taller than all the boys, especially a boy named Pouchon, who is always mad at me because I am usually first in the class, while he is in second place behind me.