january

12, 2010

When it begins, I am shelling pigeon

peas, pwa kongo, into a metal bowl under the almond tree in Madame Faustins garden. I sit on the low wooden chair, my knees
apart, the unshelled peas nestled in my old yellow skirt, so faded
its almost white. Pwa kongo for sauce. The thin layer of dirt the
pods leave on my fingers feels sticky as I crack them. My mother, my
manman, is inside, upstairs from where we sleep in the basement,
cleaning for Mme Faustin, who has gone out to the bank. My sister,
Nadine, is up the road at Jimmy Jean-Pierres house, waiting for our
soap opera to come on at five. Then, out of nowhere, groans a deep,
furious noise, a deafening growl and then a terrible shaking. The
sound and the shaking become one sensationI cant separate the
twoand the world collapses.
I am a rag doll throttled in a dogs mouth. The earth lurches back
and forth and back again, and then it shudders in violent waves.
I cant keep my balance, and I fall to my knees. I see the house fall.
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I know I should be afraid, but I feel nothing but numbness. It is the

The words stick in my dry throat and I start to cry without tears.

end of the world, and I pray, Please, God, please, God, oh, God,

I cannot tell Nadine what she must already know: that Manman is

please. And I know that this is when I will die, and I say to the

somewhere amid the jagged cement angles and the crumpled rebar

universe: okay.

of the house, the concrete ceiling fallen to the concrete floor, the

Everything explodes in white: a chalky cloud of cement powder

engulfs me, engulfs the house, engulfs the entire city of Port-auPrince. With a roar we are all swallowed. The house is gone. The
city is gone. The world is no wider than I am. I cant see more than
inches from my face. Then the sound of the people rising up in
prayer and songthe furious, screaming gratitude of the just-saved.

doorway like a collapsed mouth exhaling dust into the darkening

sky.
Manman! screams Nadine. Her voice is a childs voice. Manman! Come here, Manman! Stop it! Come back to us, Manman!
The ground trembles again. Nadine falls to her knees. I take off
running toward the house.

Jezi! Jezi! and Msi Sey! Msi Sey! Thank you, Lord! My knees

Manman! Im coming, okay? Just wait. Wait for me.

are bleeding. The blood is warm. My bare toes flex, scrape the dust.

Nothing is where it is supposed to be. I cant tell what is the

Somehow, I am not dead. The pwa kongo are scattered around me.

ceiling or the floor. Doors are no longer doors, walls are no longer

Everyone I know is gone. Manman is dead. Nadine is dead. I

walls. I dont know how to begin to get in. Wait for me, Manman,

am the only one left. I try to call Nadines cell phone, over and over.
I text her, but there is no signal.
I am too stunned to scream. Everything is severed. Nothing is real

I say again.
Another aftershock hits, and the house sinks and settles. Magdalie, dont! Nadine cries. Please. You cant do anything.

except the dust and the blood. I cant think in words. An eternity

I push at the cement, I scratch at the crevices until my fingers

passes in minutes, and there are no words. Im still on my knees, and

bleed. I start to cry. Please, wait, Manman. It is so heavy. I cant

I lean into the dirt, I put my head to the ground, Im screaming in

move it. Manman is under there.

my blood, but I cant make a sound; my heart is too tight. Everything in me is clenched like a fist.
The white dust begins to settle, but the world is still shaking, or
it feels like its shaking, or I am shaking. Nothing is the shape it was.

Nadine, bring me something. Anything. Do you see a shovel?

What do you see?
Do you hear her? calls Nadine, her voice filled with panic and
desperate hope. Can you hear her? Is she alive?

Nothing. Then I see her, appearing like a ghost. Nadine staggers up

Bring me a shovel or a hammer or something! I scream. I throw

the street and is not dead. She looks lost, as if she doesnt know the

my weight against the unyielding cement. One time on TV, I saw a

neighborhood, doesnt know the world anymore. Her face and lips

woman lift a car off her child. They say if you love someone enough,

and hair are caked white with dust. Where is Manman? Where is

you can do anything, you can find superhuman strength. Help me!

Manman? she keeps saying, as though by asking the question, she

Help me, Nadine. Jesus, help me!

might force the answer out of me, out of the universe.

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The ground beneath my feet shudders. The retaining wall be3

hind me collapses, one of the cinder blocks grazes the back of my

shaking is in the earth or in our bones or in our heads. The next af-

head. The roof caves in completely with a slow, shattering groan

tershock might be the end; the earth might crack open and swallow

and a billow of white dust.

us whole. A woman in white prays, until slowly, inconceivably, the

Manman! I scream.
Magdalie, stop it. Nadine is sobbing. Please, youre going to
die, too.

sun begins to come up over what remains of Port-au-Prince.

In the morning, Tonton lie comes to us. He looks weary and
sucked dry.

A hard, rough hand grips my upper arm. Stop, Magdalie.

Girls, go down to Delmas 18, to Tati Geraldines house.

I blink. Tonton lie? My uncle, Manmans youngest brother. I

What about Manman? asks Nadine.

dont know where hes come from. I dont know how long its been.

Im looking for her, says Tonton lie.

His face is grim, chalky dust creased into every line on his forehead.

Is she dead, I say. It doesnt sound like a question at all.

Manmans under there, I explain. I have to find her.

Itll be easier to look, now that its light.

I try to pull away, but hes gripping my arm so hard it hurts.

Stop, Magdalie. Go back to your sister.
No! Manmans under there!
Youre not strong enough. Ill find her. Ill get a hammer and
Ill find her.
Let me help you!
Go to your sister, orders Tonton lie. Go to Nadine and go
out to the street, away from the buildings.

Tonton . . .
Go to Tati Geraldines house, Magda. You cant stay in the
street.
Can we go to your house, Tonton?
It fell, too, Magdalie. Flat. He turns around and goes back to
the house.
Nadine reaches out and clasps my hand, and we go.
Nadine and I stumble through the ruins of the city. Our world

But, Tonton

has collapsed, the buildings crumbled inside out. Our everyday

Nadine needs you, you understand?

world is unfamiliar. Our school has buckled. Our church is cracked

Wi. Yes, Tonton.

and tilted like a boat in the wind. We walk over the dead, and

I go to Nadine then. She is shivering and she lays her head in my

there is no space in my head to think about that. The streets are

lap. We huddle together on the street. Night falls, and it is so cold.

still full of peopleinjured people, stunned people, people seeking

The street is full of people. A man we dont know gives us a sheet,

help, people trying to help others. So many of them are covered in

and we cover ourselves with it and pull up our knees, and we drag

white dust.

a piece of dusty cardboard over that. The gravel from the road sticks
to the blood oozing from my knees and the back of my head.

A woman, a mother, sits alone holding two tiny patent leather

shoes, wiping the dust off them, polishing them against her skirt.

Nadine and I never let go of each others hands. All night,

Her eyes are dead. An older man keens, My wife is gone, my wife

the earth shakes, again and again, until we cant tell whether the

is gone, and another man seizes him around the waist to keep

him from falling down. But most people arent screaming or crying.

sea rises, we wont have time to get anywhere, anyway, Magdalie.

The city is simply . . . migrating. We are migrating. I am numbly

Its enough. And she sits on the ground. But no tsunami comes.

surprised to see all these people because I thought maybe everyone

in the world had died.

On Thursday, Tonton lie comes and joins us at Tati Geraldines. He tells us they have found Manmans body, on what was

The sidewalks cannot hold all the bodies. Some are wrapped in

the second floor of the house. The wrought-iron terrace door fell on

sheets. I keep noticing small details: plastic pearl earrings, a neck-

her. The basementour little space where we livedis fine, the

lace with a dolphin, a Boston Celtics T-shirt, a pair of jeans with

walls not even cracked.

rhinestones on the back pockets. Those people put on their clothes

I see black. They tell me I suffered a krizthat I fell to the

yesterday morning, pulling on their pants or skirts and shirts, fas-

ground, shaking uncontrollably, my jaw clenched. I wake up later,

tening their bras and belts, not realizing those were the clothes they

bruised and scraped, my head aching, my knees bleeding again,

would die in. Some have on only one shoe. Their feet are callused

with Nadine lying next to me. She doesnt say anything, and she

from when they used to walk. A dead womans skirt is tangled

hardly ever speaks of Manman again.

around her waist. A dead mans T-shirt rides up, showing the
world the bottom of his fat gut. Everything and everyone is exposed.

Manman was ironing when she died. Hearing that made me

angry. She always hated ironing.

I cry a little, but I cant really feel anything. Time doesnt exist

At first everyone tries to find out who survived, and then, after

anymore. There is no more future. I say, Thank you, Jesus, thank

a while, we start not wanting to know anymore. The city smells

you, Jesus, please, Jesus . . . over and over. Words flow through my

cloying, the wrong kind of sweet, the smell of rotting meat, of death.

body, like blood or air, reminding me that I am still alive. Nadine

There are big blue flies everywhere, feasting. The smell sticks in the

and I cling to each other as if we are one person.

back of my throat, and I know that I will never stop tasting death.

We make our way to the house of the old lady Manman calls

On Friday, we move onto the local soccer field, me and Nadine

Tati Geraldine, her countrywoman, whom she knows from where

and Tonton lie. We are homeless. Mme Faustins house is gone,

she grew up, in St. Juste. That night, we all sleep in the lakou, the

and if Manman isnt cooking for her and washing her clothes, we

yard, with the ducks. Someone hears on the radio that a tsunami

have no right to live with her anyway. For two days we sleep on

is coming. Anything seems possible. People start to run. The whole

the ground. On the third day, we start building. We use what we

neighborhood runs. Everyone runs. The injured limp, if they can.

find, sheets and sticks. We use what we salvage from the ruins. All

If they cant, people carry them. Nadine and I run, too. We dont

around us, people are doing the same. Some we know, and some we

know where were running. I feel strangely calm. We are running

dont. Now we know them. Everyone shares what theyve got. No

through a dreamscape. Nothing is surprising anymore. There is no-

one is stingy. If someone cooks food over a small fire, everyone gets a

where to go. Nowhere is safe. We stop running when we are too

little. Rice, spaghetti.

tired, hungry, exhausted, resigned to continue. Nadine says, If the

6

Now people talk, and they try to make sense of what happened.
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They say the earthquake happened because we are all sinners, because were all guilty of evil. Or they say it was a missile that France
sent to kill us, or an underwater tunnel that the United States is
building between Miami and Haiti. Me, I dont know why the
earthquake happened. I dont understand it at all. I dont want
to think it was random chance. But I cant force it to make sense,
either. I dont want to believe that God would do this, and I dont
want to believe that Satan is winning.
Now I know that there is nothing on this earth that cannot be
ground to dust in seconds. Now I know I cant control anything
at all. Everything I know is gone, everything, everything but Nadine. My sister, the only real thing leftthe sound of her voice, the
warmth and shape of her near me at night. She is as much of me
as I am.

Why would I write about it, when there

is no way I could ever, ever forget?
It doesnt change anything if I write it down or not.
It doesnt unbury anybody.
It doesnt save anyone.
I dont need to remember. I cannot forget.
There are memories you write down so you can preserve them. This isnt one of them.
There are memories you write down to get them out,
to force them as far away from you as you can.
Only, it never works. My memories are out to get
me. I push away the dog of memory with a stick as it
gnashes its teeth and leaps for my throat. I remember,
whether I want to or not.
I am only one witness, of millions. It doesnt matter
what I say. It doesnt change a thing.
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April

2010

Childrens stories are supposed to begin with Once upon a time. Once upon a time, I was an
ordinary fifteen-year-old schoolgirl who lived with her
manman and her sister in the downstairs part of a
big cement house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was
owned by a lady named Madame Faustin. My aunt
who became my manmanraised me as her own child.
I never knew any different. Manman was a servant in
Mme Faustins house, which meant she did all the cooking, the sweeping, the going-to-market, the washing,
and everything else that needed to be done in that big
house. Manmans work was hard, but she made a good
life for my cousin and me. We laughed all the timeat
Nadines snoring, at goofy Tonton Bicha movies on our
black-and-white TV, at Manmans jokes and stories from
the countryside where she grew up. Wed make fun of
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the boys who whistled at us as we walked to school

er). But sometimes we call it the tent. Actually, its a

in the morning in our blue-and-white uniforms. Wed

house made of plywood, sheet metal, and plastic tarps.

laugh in secret at Mme Faustin and her sour face and

Tonton lie built it himself, with Nadines friend Jimmy

her middle-class airs, how she walked like a fat duck,

and some other guys who live around here. They nailed

and how shed call for Manman to bring her her supper:

the tarps to the plywood, through caps from old Prestige

Yo-LETTE! Are you letting me starve tonight, Yolette?

beer bottles and old Couronne soda bottles, the caps

Life was boring and merciful then. Manman took

care of everything. Looking at me and Nadine in those

serrated sides down. The bottle caps help keep the nails
from tearing the plastic tarps when the wind blows.

days, our skin soaped and rinsed and baby-powdered,

We are still afraid of sleeping under cement roofs.

our hair brushed and braided, our uniforms clean and

Everybody iseverybody in this city is afraid of that.

ironed, nobody would ever know we were poor. Your

Everybody is ready to run all the time. When a water

clothes are your passport, Manman always said as she

truck goes by, when a strong wind blows, when some-

made sure our socks came up to just the right place on

one jiggles their foot against the table, and sometimes

our shins. Everything neat and in its place.

when theres nothing at all but we imagine the tremor

Now, for me and Nadine, that life, that world is gone.

in our headswe run. We dream about earthquakesin

Now it is me, Nadine, and Tonton lie. He is not

our nightmares we are frozen and cannot run. This kid

someone we would live with otherwise. The situation

Kervens who lives in the tent near the mapou tree, he

made us live together. He is our uncle, but were not

was under the rubble for seven hours on January 12, and

really used to him. He doesnt have children, and he

now he wont sleep without his sneakers on his feet.

doesnt know very much about teenage girls. Hes a mechanic and an electrician. He spends his days looking

At least in the camp we dont have to worry about

being crushed if our tents fall.

for work or fixing up old secondhand radios and TVs.

Nadine and I share a bed, as we always have, and

He mostly ignores us or gets impatient with us. So in a

Tonton lie makes his bed of blankets on the floor every

way, its just me and Nadine.

night. He grumbles that his body is too old for this. He

We live in the camp down the road from the place

isnt more than thirty, though, so his body is just fine.

Tonton lie used to live, on the old soccer field thats

Weve got electricity whenever the government turns it

been filled with people since January 12. Our house is

on. Tonton lie set up our tent and a bunch of the tents

not a tent (though there are tents around itlittle red

around us with a web of wires reaching up to the elec-

Coleman camping tents from the United States and huge

trical pole, which isnt technically legal, but the police

white domes donated by one relief organization or oth-

have other things to worry about. As long as the elec-

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13

tricity is on, we can charge our phones and watch TV.

We dont go to school anymore, even though the

As far as camps go, ours is medium-size, maybe fifty

schools reopened this month. The president says its

tents. It is not huge like the one on the Champ de Mars

time for life to start again, but Nadine and I dont have

or La Piste, but its not tiny and hidden on some hillside,

anyone to pay for school since Manman died. Tonton

either. That is good, says Tonton lie; it is good to be

lie cant afford it. We dont do much of anything but

visible and near the road, because it means relief orga-

wait. Living in a camp is all about waitingfor food,

nizations will see us and give us aid. He says thats the

for water, for something to change. Of course, it is also

way its going to be now, and theres nothing shameful

hard. But its hard in a drudging, dragging way. We are

about it, its not the same as begging because the country

fighting for our survival, but the fight is tedious and

is broken, and everyone will come and help us.

slow-motion.

Right after the earthquake, when the whole country

When we are bored, Nadine and I practice cosmetol-

was upside-down, we got a little bit of food from the

ogy on each other. Weve been doing each others hair

organizations. Tonton lie had me and Nadine stand

since we were little girls, but now were moving on to

in line because the organizations said women and girls

other things: manicures and pedicures, acrylic finger-

first, women and girls are more trustworthy, women

nails, makeup, eyebrows. I wasnt nervous when I let

and girls wont push and shove like men will. So we

Nadine go at my eyebrows with a Gillette, because even

stood in line for hours and hours and hours, sweating

if she made a mistake, theres no one else to see or care.

in the sun with hundreds of other people, and all we

Yesterday afternoon, I tried putting acrylic nails on

got was two cans of oil and a little bit of dried rice and

Nadou. I pressed them down with Krazy Glue and then

beans for all that trouble. Tonton lie said that was a

cut them, just like our neighbor Jilne does when she

scam; hed never make us wait in line like that again.

gives manicures and pedicures under the mapou tree in

A big tanker truck comes and delivers water to the

the camp, but they were still long, like talons.

camp twice a week, pumping it into huge yellow rubber

It kind of hurts, Magda, Nadine told me.

bags that sit in the sun, getting hot. Even though the or-

Youll get used to it, Nadou, I said.

ganizations say its good potable water, nobody believes

I have a lot of nail polishes, though some of them are

them. The water tastes funny, like the rubber it sits in.

old now, sticky and thick or almost used up. Some of

So we use it for washing and maybe for cooking, but

them were ours from before the earthquake, and they

definitely not for drinking. We buy little bags of treated

got dug out of the rubble. Some of them Jilne gave me.

water to drink, or if weve really got no money, we col-

She is nice to us because we have no mother. When you

lect rainwater off the tarp and boil it.

put all the nail-polish bottles together, its a lot of colors.

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15

I tried drawing designs on Nadous acrylic claws.

Squiggles, swirls, a rainbow, flowers, a butterfly.
Nadou peered down at her thumb. Is that a spider?
Its a rose.

Hmm! she says, but she places her fingertips in the

water.
I tug gently on the purple flower on Nadous right
index finger.

It sort of looks like a spider.

It seems stuck, she observes.

It has a stem.

Just a little harder, I promise, and I yank.

Some nails turned out better than others. The best

Mezanmi! she cries. Oh my God! No, no, no. Its not

nail was probably the green one with gold sparkles and
a black tip.

working. Dont do that again.

Its totally getting loose. Absolutely. I just need some-

My fingers feel really heavy, said Nadou.

thing to help pry it off. Wait a second. I rummage

Youll get used to it, I said again, with confidence.

through my cosmetics kit until I find a nail file and an

How will I wash the dishes? she asked.

old pair of pliers of Tonton lies.

Havent you seen women with acrylics doing all

kinds of things? They wash dishes. They wash clothes.
They type. They cook. They just get used to it.
Nadine thought for a moment. How will I wipe
myself ?
She has given up on her new look after only a day,

Magdalie, youre going to kill me!

No, no, I know what Im doing. I jam the file between the acryclic and Nadines real nail, scraping at the
glue, which comes away as a flaky white powder.
Thats my own nail coming off! whines Nadine.
Thats the glue, dummy. Ive got it under control.

after wincing every time she accidentally hit her hands

Once Ive gotten the nail a little loose, I grab the tip

against anything and sleeping last night without moving,

with the pliers. Its going to slide right off now, I an-

her fingers spread out carefully on the sheet. Now she

nounce, and I twist.

comes to me today, saying, Magda, weve got to get

these off me.
Really? You should try them for another day.
I cant. I cant do anything. Unless you want to do all
the cooking and all the cleaning yourself ?
Fine.
I heat a little water in an old can over the charcoal.
Youre supposed to soak your hands in warm water,
and theyll pull right off, I assure her.
16

Anmweeeeey! Heeeeelp! yells Nadou as she pulls her

hand away from me and turns toward the wall. Actual
tears glisten in her eyes.
I guess youve just got sensitive fingertips, ti douyt,
you fragile thing, I tell her.
Youre not my friend! Nadine mutters, wiping her
eyes. I hate you!
You know, Im going to go borrow some of Tonton
lies paint thinner, I decide.
17

When I return, we prop open the front door of the

out even trying, but the good kind, who are better and

tarp-house and tie up the lace curtain to let the fumes

more powerful for being together. They said we looked

escape, and Nadou grudgingly places her fingertips in

like two drops of water. Same color skin, same eyes,

the bowl of thinner. (This is your fault, Magda, she

same gap in our front teeth. People said our names as if

hisses.) A thick band of sunlight splashes across the

they were one word strung together: Magdalie-and-Nadine

inside of our home: the swept-dirt floor, the battered

or sometimes Nadine-and-Magdalie. But we arent twins,

suitcases full of clothes, Tonton lies half-fixed circuit

we arent even sisters. Nadine is my cousin. She was

boards, and a huge wall calendar, distributed by Prestige

born in Port-au-Prince and is an only child. I was born

beer, featuring two women in bikinis on a beach. All

on a mountain a days walk from the town of Jrmie

the noise of the camp flows into our private world: the

on Haitis southwest tip. I came to live with Nadou

revving of motorcycle taxis, the bleating of goats, the

and Manman when I was three, when my own mother,

squalling of babies, the sound of a woman washing her

Manmans younger sister, died while giving birth to my

clothes and singing an evangelical hymn.

little brother, who died, too.

Keep soaking them, I tell Nadou.

My father was a good man who loved me, but he was

Hmmph! she says.

poor. They tell me he had lots of breadfruit trees and

Eventually, after some scraping, paring, and pulling,

yams, but he had no money to send me to school, and

we get the nails off, though Nadine yells and writhes as

so he sent me to the capital instead. A few years after

though I were pulling out her teeth instead.

I was born, he died suddenly, with blood coming out

I think my nails are only half as thick as they used

of his mouth. Manman said it was a maladi mistik, a

to be, she moans, sticking her hands under her arms

disease that somebody had cursed him with. And that is

protectively.

the story of how I became Yolettes second daughter. As

Its really a pity I had to break the acrylics, I say,

long as I can remember, I called her Manman.

ignoring her. Some of the designs were really beautiful.

No one knows me like Nadine does, and no one

Youll have to do it again sometime, replies Nadine

knows Nadine like I do. In truth, we are marasa not

flatly.

because were identical, because we really arent, but

because we complete each other, like two halves of a

People used to call Nadine and me the marasa, the twins,

whole. I am louder than she is, and Im not good at

because we are so close in age and look so much alike.

hiding things or keeping secretsespecially my own.

Not the bad kind of marasa, who hate each other from

Nadou is quieter and more closed up. Manman and I

the womb and can kill each other with a curse with-

used to say we were the only people who knew what

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19

Nadine was thinking. Nadine liked to joke, Bon, why

Church. She believed in healing plants and she believed

do I need to talk when you talk enough for both of us,

in antibiotics. Manman could believe in everything. She

Magda? You run your mouth too much! But its not that

had a lot of faith.

she doesnt talk at all. Nadine talks to me, because I am

Even though Manman didnt have any formal educa-

her confidante, and her sister, and her true and forever

tion, she was clever. She used nearly every gourde she

friend.

earned to send us both to Catholic school, because she

Before the quake, we all lived at Mme Faustins: Man-

knew it was better than the little neighborhood school.

man, Nadine, and me. Manman never made enough

When I was little, I figured out that I liked to read and

money to finish the house she had tried to build in

write, and the nuns would sometimes lend me extra

Port-au-Prince, and Mme Faustins was in a better neigh-

books to read at home. Id sit on the low wooden chair

borhood anyway. I cant just let you girls loose on the

near Manman while she cooked over the charcoal fire,

street so men can talk to you whenever they want and

and Id read stories to her, because she loved stories

have their way with you. I cant let you grow up in the

but shed never learned to read. When I ran out of bor-

slums. You understand?

rowed stories, I began to write my own for her. She said

Wi, Manman, Nadou would say, then giggle.

my stories were better than the radio, better, even, than

Little innocent, Manman would grumble. Ungrate-

the soap operas.

ful. Oh, I break my body for you, pitit! But shed laugh,
too, and slap Nadou on the behind.

Pitit! shed say. Child! Where did you learn to do

that?

Sometimes Nadine was embarrassed by Manmans

I wish I had memorized Manmans face, and her

lack of education, because she was both a Catholic who

handsthe burns, the scars, the calluses. Her hands were

went to church and a vodouyizan who got mounted by

always warm. She used to rub my back with palma

the spirits, the lwa.

christi oil when I was sore from carrying my backpack,

Thats backwards belief, devil stuff, she would say.

and shed sing us lullabies about the demons that hide in

If you dont believe in vodou, I would ask her,

the dark wilderness, the things that would eat us up if

then why are you so afraid of it?

given a chance. When she braided our hair, shed scratch

Manman was serious about the spirits, but she laughed

the teeth of the plastic comb against our scalps to loosen

about it, too. Ask her what she believed and shed start

the dandruff, and it was the sweetest reliefI loved get-

shaking and jiggling her whole body, making fun of peo-

ting my hair braided, just for that feeling. When Nadine

ple who get mounted by the lwa, even though she did,

and I were little girls, wed pat too much talcum on our

too. Manman believed in vodou, and she believed in the

necks, and Manman would look at us covered in white

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21

dust, and exclaim, Oh, look how well these little fish

these thingsthings that Manman once touched with

are covered in flour! Well fry them up tonight!

her hands or wore on her bodyhave outlived her. She

Manman loved to laugh! I always remind myself of

is not here, but all these things she touched are still here.

that, of how often she used to laugh and tell jokes.

And we are still here, and we must take care of each

Sometimes the jokes were about sex and especially mens

other as she took care of us.

zozos, which embarrassed Nadine more than they embarrassed me.

Youve never seen the old tonton who sells cigarettes
with his thing all swollen fromwhats that disease that
can make your foot swell up like an elephants?
Filariasis, Manman, Id say.
Fil-a-ri-a-sis, shed repeat carefully. And his thing is
swelled up as big around as his leg, poor guy . . . But
can you imagine? Hed tear up any woman he tried to
sleep with!
Nadou would squeal, Manman! and hide her face in
her hands.
Even though these memories make me feel closer to
Manman, I cant talk about them at all with Nadine. She
gets too upset. She never talks about Manman; she just
cries when she thinks no one is looking. Me, I dont care
who sees me cry. I cry easily, out in the open. Nadou
shakes her head and tells me, Hold on to yourself,
Magda! But I dont want the day to come when I stop
crying for Manman.
Now we are surrounded by things pulled out of the
rubble of our home. Some of our clothes, our photos,
even our talcum powder and nail polish. Our old geography books. Nadous High School Musical poster. My
journal. It doesnt make any sense to me, still, that all
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23

July

2010

Nadous papa in Miami has been talking

about bringing her there. He has a lawyer, but the process is very long and complicated. Tonton lie has to
keep taking Nadou to appointments at the US embassy
and all these other places. We dont know when shell
get her visa or even if shell get it. Nadou keeps her
phone right next to her all the time, even when shes
bathing, just in case her papa calls.
I tell her, If you drown your phone in the kivt, hell
never be able to call you again.
Nadines papa is not family to me, so he cant do
anything for me. But Nadou promises that if she goes to
America, I will go, too. Youre my sister, she tells me.
Even if we cant leave at the same time, Ill send for you
as soon as I can.
Nadou and I dream about Miami and all the things
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we will do once we are there together. Our dreams get

bigger and bigger, more exaggeratedwe keep trying to
come up with something bigger and better than the last
time.
We could go bowling, I say. Like in Justin Biebers
Baby video.
We could see a movie in a theater, Nadou says. On
a big screen.
We could get our belly buttons pierced.
We could do that here.
We could get air-conditioning.
It might be cold there.
We could make money and buy a car and drive it all
the way to New York City, I say.
All the way to Montreal, Nadou says.

I dont know what Nadine ate that I

All the way to Paris. I giggle.

didnt eat yesterday. We had mayi moulen with ss pwa,

We could get real jobs.

cornmeal with bean sauce, for dinner, which we cooked

We could work at a supermarket. Or a mall.

together while Tonton lie was out listening to politics

We could go to college.

on the radio and drinking kleren somewhere with other

We could become doctors.

men. And I was feeling fine. Then, in the middle of the

We could become president!

night tonight, Nadine shakes me awake.

Of Haiti or of the United States?

Magda! she hisses.

Both!

I sit up, startled, my heart pounding. What!

We laugh like its a big joke, because joking is the

Twalt kenbe m! she whispers. I have to go to the

only way we have to talk about things we cant really

control.

bathroom! Now!
I flop back down and turn over, pulling the sheet
over my head. Cant you hold it until morning? Tonton
lie isnt back yet. You know were not supposed to
leave the tent at night without him.

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No! Nadine squeaks more loudly. I need to go now.

age ditch and rinse it out: easy. When weve got to do

Nadou, its the middle of the night

more than that, we have to strategize. I mean, it really

Do you want me to have diarrhea in this bed?

changes things when you have to plan. It means I dont

I shine the display of my cell phone over Nadine.

drink coffee anymore.

She definitely looks uncomfortable, with a light sheen

Most of the time, Nadine will go to her friend Jim-

of sweat at her hairline. Fine, lets go, I mumble, and

my Jean-Pierres place, which is just a couple of blocks

I slip on my plastic sandals.

away, where they have a real toilet. She keeps her own

This is all your fault, she hisses accusatorially as she

roll of toilet paper on top of our TV and takes it with

unbolts the sheet of plywood that makes up our front

her whenever she goes. She says Jimmy wouldnt have

door, her fingers slipping as she rushes. I knew you

a problem with my doing that, too, but I dont know

would put too much clove in the ss pwa. Youre always

him that well, and Im embarrassed, and I dont want

adding too many cloves. You know it does this to me.

his family to think Im a freeloader. Sometimes I go to

I added no more clove than anyone else would have.

As much as Manman taught me to add, I think to myself.

the latrine behind the little restaurant across the street,

which is owned by a lady named Loulouze who wears

Using my cell phone as a flashlight, we wend our way

huge earrings. Of course, my child, youve got no moth-

to the camp toilets. They are portable plastic toilets, and

er. Use it whenever you like. But I dont want to take

one of the aid organizations pays people who live in the

advantage of her kindness.

camp a little bit of money to clean them. This is how

And you cant always plan ahead . . .

shameful our lives have become: foreigners paying us to

In the dark, on nights when we dont have power, the

clean our own houses. The toilets are hot and horrible

camp looks like a different place than it does in the day,

and make me gag. There is always something leaking

deserted and menacing. Even my fears are blurrythe

and creeping across the sidewalk, a slow-moving puddle

bogeymen of my childhood imagination, and the rapists

that trickles into the street. They dont even have doors

Tonton lie is always warning us of. A lone streetlight,

anymorepeople took them to use the wood for other

installed by a relief organization, illuminates the area

thingsso youd never use one alone. You need someone

right around the toilets, but until we reach it, we are in

with you to stand in the open doorway, and, anyway,

a landscape of invisible phantoms and lurking monsters.

it doesnt feel safe to be there alone, especially at night.

Go faster, go faster! Nadine begs.

Nadine and I have trained ourselves never to have to

She takes a deep breath, then hurries inside and pulls

use the camp toilets if we can help it. When we have to

down her pajama pants just in time. I stand where the

pee, we go in a plastic kivt, then pour it into the sew-

door should be, blocking the view of all the nonexistent

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29

passersby, and I pick at a hangnail, trying not to listen

I am here. It is unpleasant to be sick, but it would be

to what Nadine is doing.

so much worse to be sick alone in this place. I feel sad

I hold my breath. This is one of the worst smells in

and lonely just imagining Nadou stumbling through the

the world. I can think of only one smell thats worse,

dark alone, by the dim light of the cell phone, to have

and thats the stench of rot that rose up from the city

diarrhea in the horrible camp toilet. Who would block

in the days after the quake, that told you death was

the doorway for her if I wasnt there? Who would block

everywhere, everywhere. But the toilet smell is terrible

the doorway for me, if our roles were reversed? Who

in a different way, maybe because were supposed to get

would be there to laugh about it with me afterward, to

used to it. I keep holding my breath, and my chest gets

laugh at the stupidity and awfulness of it all?

tighter and tighter. The air from my lungs backs up into

Okay, lets go, says Nadine. Her voice sounds small.

my throat, my nose, my mouth, and I try to release it bit

My butts all raw, she whispers with a trace of an apol-

by bit without breathing any new air in. It takes more

ogetic smile on her face.

than a minute for me to feel dizzy and see purple-black

spots, and without thinking, I gulp in a huge quaff of
warm, putrid air.

Anmwy! I burst out laughing and gasp, Mezanmi,

Nadou!
We walk more slowly back to our now-home as the

It is acrid and horrible, searing and thick with shit

first pink fingers of light appear over the horizon and

and poison. I imagine the germs buzzing in the air,

the camps roosters rouse themselves and begin to crow.

traveling down into my lungs. The smell is so strong, it

lingers on my tongue. My stomach lurches, and I feel a
sour burn at the back of my throat.
Nadou, are you finished?
Im not sure . . . , she whimpers miserably. I think
there might still be more in there . . .
I am brisk with Nadine because sometimes she can
get very exaggerated about illness and discomfortshe
has always been this wayand because I would rather
be sleeping peacefully in bed than standing out in the
middle of the camp in the middle of the night, my cheap
plastic sandals sticking in the filthy toilet mud, holding
my breath outside this sickening cesspool. Still, Im glad
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