Towers Falling

Dèja has not started her essay about her home, thinking, “What’s there to say when home is a room filled with garbage that we pretend is important” (41). Their room is a mess, except for Pop’s locked suitcase, which no one is allowed to touch. Ma says it’s from Pop’s “last good job” (42). Dèja wonders why Pop can’t clean.

Ma came to America “for a better life,” but Dèja thinks that she shouldn’t have left Jamaica. She doesn’t see a better life in New York.

Pop asks Dèja what she is doing, and she shows him the art supplies she’s using to represent their home. Ray and Leda are both helping. He asks about school, and Dèja doesn’t want him to know she likes it because she also doesn’t “want him to think it’s okay that we’re living in Avalon” (43). Pop tells her that he bets she’s the smartest of her classmates, and Dèja smiles. Then she says that she thinks Ray should go to school.

Ma comes home and is happy to see her family all interacting together. Dèja explains her assignment, and her parents both look sad. She says it’s okay, especially since “it’s not just about home, it’s about the missing towers” (45).