Brother, I'm Dying

When Edwidge is five and Marie Micheline is 22, Joseph’s adopted daughter becomes pregnant with a neighbor’s son. Marie hides the pregnancy for seven months, but Tante Denise discovers it and sends Marie to live with a cousin until she gives birth (even though Denise herself was not married to Joseph when she gave birth to Maxo). Little Edwidge loves Marie “because she was kind and pretty” (66). She also often reminds Edwidge and Liline how much their parents love them.

The father’s family, the Pradels, refuses to acknowledge the baby, and they send their son, Jean, to Montreal. Marie returns with a baby girl, Ruth, and a new husband, Pressoir Marol, a man of dubious background who is in his thirties. Soon they learn that he belongs to Tonton Macoutes and is insanely jealous. He takes Marie away: “He left word with their landlord for my aunt and uncle that he now had bullets and that Marie Micheline was forbidden to see anyone” (72).

Joseph regrets letting Denise decide Marie’s fate and goes in pursuit of her, finding her in a small village in the mountains, where Pressoir has become a major force, although the Macoutes “were all equally intimidating because they represented the government” (73).