Crossing the Mangrove

In first-person narration, the older Mama Sonson, born and raised in Rivière au Sel, describes her family: Her husband Simeon is deceased, and her second son, Robert, went to France and married a white woman—which she finds shameful as someone whose African ancestors were enslaved by white people. She knows the people at Sancher’s wake are hypocrites, for many visited her wanting to harm him. Mama Sonson’s own mother is clairvoyant, and she herself developed the skill upon dreaming of her brother’s death. Since then, she has been unable to escape such dreams. She admits she likes Sancher and remembers meeting him in the forest, where they often share their knowledge of plants. He reveals both his past as a doctor and Mira’s pregnancy, and Mama Sonson begs him to marry Mira. He says he cannot, and implies he is looking for a plant to induce abortion. Mama Sonson assumes Sancher rejected Mira because he already has a wife, but he claims he is simply “living on borrowed time” (66). At the wake, she thinks Vilma’s wealthy father Sylvestre will be able to find her a husband despite her being pregnant with an illegitimate child.