Before She Disappeared

Frankie attends an AA meeting. She has been sober for nine years, but before that, her life revolved around alcohol. Paul had rescued her from her downward spiral, but ultimately, Frankie found that even Paul couldn’t save her from herself.

After the meeting, she asks the other members where she might be able to buy a cheap, untraceable phone. Charlie, who volunteers at the local rec center, has heard kids talking about places to buy street phones. He doesn’t know much about Angelique, but he invites Frankie to stop by the rec center to look around when he is there. On her way home from the meeting, Frankie sees a group of men sharing a needle, ecstatic looks on their faces.

The next morning, Emmanuel meets Frankie at Stoney’s and show her a digital collage of pictures of Angelique on his laptop. He tells her how the police initially dismissed Angelique as a runaway. He remarks that Officer O’Shaughnessy is all right, but he doesn’t really understand—he is Irish and Haitian, an American whose family came from Haiti. Emmanuel and Angelique are Haitians who live in America. They live with an uncertainty about their future that he doesn’t experience.