Krik? Krak!

The anonymous narrator of “Night Women” is a 25-year-old sex worker living in Ville Rose with her young son. They live in a one-bedroom home that is divided by a thin fabric. As her son prepares for bed, the narrator thinks about how he looks like his father, who is implied to be a former customer. The narrator watches her son squirm, moan, and slap mosquitos in his sleep. She thinks that the blood on his face makes it look like he’s been kissing a woman with open wounds on her face, and wonders if he has learned to masturbate.

The narrator distinguishes between day women and night women, and says that she is stuck between the two. She thinks of a place in Ville Rose where ghost women lure late night walkers into the sea, and wonders if the ghost women are with her in her home. She imagines women who spend their days working and their nights undoing their work, so that there is always more work to be done. These women create work so that they don’t have to be sex workers, like the narrator.

The narrator performs a series of tests to make sure her son is asleep: She kisses his cheek, touches his lips, whispers stories in his ear, blows on his eyelashes, and sings to him.