Summary

Page 294 changes to Yahaira’s perspective as she tells the reader Mami will not let her see the remains of Papi. The airline has mailed them a catalog of the cloth and bits of suitcase her father left in the bottom of the ocean. She looks at all the photos of everything, and thinks about all the questions they have that will not be answered. Page 296 is titled “Forty-Nine Days After” (296). Mami is holding a wake before they ship Papi’s body back to the DR. Tio Jorge picks them up and hugs Yahaira, calling her bella negra. When Yahaira kneels at Papi’s coffin she thinks of how he told her to “never let them see you sweat negra” (297). Her family pays their respects as Yahaira wonders about how her father would react to family there, and thinks she will wonder the...