Who is Anika?

Anika is the point-of-view character in the story “The Gift.” She is a Haitian woman living in Miami. She works as a painter. She used to have a secret sexual relationship with a married man named Thomas. However, after Thomas’ wife and child died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Thomas broke off his relationship with Anika out of a sense of guilt. A year later, Anika arranges a meeting with Thomas and gives him an abstract portrait depicting his wife and child as birds. Thomas is unsettled by the gift.