Hurricane Child

Caroline leaves in the middle of the school day and goes to Kalinda’s house and shouts her name. Kalinda comes outside and says she didn’t want to say goodbye like this and that yesterday was their goodbye. Caroline says, “Yesterday can’t count if only one person knows they’re saying good-bye” (154). Kalinda agrees but says she hates saying good-bye.

Caroline is furious and asks when Kalinda is leaving, and the answer is two days. Caroline says then they have two days to find her mother. Kalinda says she can’t, but Caroline reminds her that she promised. Kalinda tells her a storm is coming, and they will both be in trouble. Caroline doesn’t care; she was born in a storm, and storms don’t scare her. They walk away from Kalinda’s house, towards the address written on the back of the photograph. Kalinda says they have to find somewhere to stay since the sun is setting, and sunset is when the angriest spirits come out. They plan to go to the address in the countryside first thing in the morning.

They go to the waterfront where the cruise ships dock, and they walk through the tourist shops not buying anything. There are condos nearby, and they walk to them, knowing they will be empty. Kalinda is hesitant to stay there, but Caroline convinces her. They pass the security guard in his box as he fans himself with the pages of a book. He is suspicious of the girls as they walk slowly past him. They avoid the second security guard and move along the side of the property.

The girls climb through a hole under the iron fence that was dug out by an iguana. They run through the gardens, hiding when they hear the footsteps of the guards. Kalinda jumps in the ocean smiling, and Caroline sits on the edge of the dock. Caroline tires of watching Kalinda swim, and she enters the main condo where she is sure Oprah Winfrey has stayed. She can see Kalinda swimming from the balcony, and she yanks the screen off the window and pushes it open to climb inside. There is a television that nearly covers the wall, and Caroline flips through the hundreds of stations. Kalinda knocks on the door and enters. They explore the condo and find the bedroom, which is as big as Caroline’s house.

The girls jump on the huge bed and laugh until they both get quiet in thought. Caroline can see Water Island and thinks to herself that she can probably see her house too, and the window of her kitchen where her father is, “sitting at the table, waiting for his two women to come home” (163). They get hungry and go downstairs, but the cabinets only have non-perishables: crackers, water, and cold Vienna sausage. They sit in front of the television light—the only light they have—with the opened cans in front of them. Kalinda says she’s going to be in trouble, and Caroline isn’t sure what her own father will do. They go to bed, and Kalinda is still damp from swimming, so they shiver together until they fall asleep.

They wake up to the security guard, whom they passed along the road the night before, asking them if they want to go to jail. Kalinda and Caroline look at one another and then run at him and knock him over. The guard grabs Kalinda’s ankle, and she falls. Caroline jumps on his stomach and he grabs her knees until she kicks him in the nose. He yells that she broke his nose, and they flee. The bleeding guard follows them holding his face, and the girls hurry to the iguana hole in the iron fence. They escape, and Kalinda jumps onto a taxi and pulls Caroline up. By the time the taxi reaches the waterfront, they are laughing hysterically.

The weather worsens, and Caroline and Kalinda jump off the taxi without paying. The woman driving calls out to them from her taxi and says they should get home soon to avoid the tropical storm. Rain begins to drop in big plops, and Kalinda takes Caroline’s hand and tells her she’s scared, but she has something to tell her: that she feels the same way about her, too. She was afraid to tell Caroline because she had been told it’s wrong to feel that way, but she thinks Caroline is right about not believing everything somebody else says. She tells Caroline she loves her.

Kalinda opens up to Caroline and tells her how much the journal meant to her and how she read it again and again, and she would love to marry her someday. Caroline could cry from relief, but Kalinda says they have to keep moving before a downpour starts. They make their way into the countryside where they can see all the other islands. Black clouds are moving in.

They arrive at the address, and Caroline hesitates, afraid of what she might find behind the front door. Caroline opens the front gate and walks to the front door to knock. A woman answers, and Caroline asks for Doreen Murphy. The woman says she only knows a Doreen Hendricks. The woman tells her Doreen is her cousin, and they grew up together in this house and lost touch years ago.

Her mother’s cousin asks who Caroline is, and Caroline decides it would be best to say that she has a gift for her from an old friend, Miss Joseph. The cousin says she hasn’t heard from Loretta Joseph in years and that the girls are close enough to Doreen’s place, as she didn’t move far. She tells Caroline to walk over the hill to the white house with a garden of yellow flowers. The girls thank her, and she tells them to hurry before the storm starts.

They find the house, and there is a little girl about six years old standing on the porch. Caroline introduces herself and tells her she’s looking for Doreen. The young girl shakes her head, and Caroline thinks she’s shy. The girl nods when asked if Doreen lives there. A man quickly exits the home with the scents of lemongrass tea and boiled plantain following him, which makes Caroline realize how hungry she is.

The man asks Caroline how he can help her. He realizes she is Doreen’s daughter and tells the little girl to go set the table. He tells Caroline that Doreen wouldn’t want her there, and this crushes Caroline’s spirit. She replies that she just wants to talk to Doreen. Just as he explains that she told him she doesn’t want to meet with Caroline if she ever shows up, a car pulls down the dirt pathway. The man clenches his jaw.

The girls and the man stand there as the car door opens and a woman comes over holding a bag of groceries. Doreen drops the groceries and puts a hand to her mouth. Her hair and face are exactly how Caroline remembers. Doreen walks over to Caroline, and when her arms wrap tightly around her, Caroline cries. Doreen cries too as Caroline clutches her mother, and Doreen is smoothing her hair down.

Doreen asks Caroline to come inside, and Caroline looks at Kalinda who stays standing there. Caroline knows she would rather wait outside, and so Caroline enters the house with the groceries and the man who is named Richard. Doreen picks up the little girl and kisses her cheek, and Caroline feels envious.

Saltfish is stewing, and Richard makes Caroline a plate of plantain and oatmeal. Caroline now sees what Kalinda was saying about her resembling her mother. Richard takes the little girl to the living room, and Doreen says Caroline is beautiful and looks like her cousin Idris when they were the same age. Doreen tells her she prayed that Caroline would be happy and safe.

Her mother tells Caroline that she never wanted to hurt her, and Caroline asks her several questions about why she left. Doreen explains that she had a difficult time living with who she was before: “I was a woman who was sure I didn’t have a right to exist in this world. But now I know that I do. Just the same as anyone else. I have a right to exist and live and love and be loved” (181). She tells Caroline that she has those rights too, which is incredibly validating for her to hear, and it makes Caroline smile.

Caroline feels that her questions are still unanswered, and she asks again why she didn’t stay. Doreen explains that she couldn’t stay in that house anymore, but it had nothing to do with Caroline or even her father. It was because she was ill, sick from loneliness, and even though Caroline and her father were around, it was a different kind of loneliness she hopes Caroline never feels. She even tried to take her own life.

The idea of her mother leaving permanently under those conditions infuriates Caroline. Doreen explains that she went for treatment at the hospital, and when she was released, she decided she couldn’t go back to that house because Caroline’s father had Bernadette with another woman he loved. She felt trapped. She traveled the world and came back and unexpectedly met Richard. They fell in love and married and adopted Katie.

Caroline has a difficult time wrapping her mind around everything, and she stops eating. She stands up, and her mother takes her hand before she runs. Doreen tries to plead with Caroline, but Caroline pulls her hand away. Doreen tells her she’s seen her several times around the island, and Caroline isn’t sure what to say. The rain comes down hard, and the radio is playing updates on the storm. Doreen says that she’s never stopped loving Caroline. Richard comes in and tells Caroline that Katie is too shy to ask, but she wants to play board games with her. Caroline is still hurt and decides to run away before anyone else can say anything. Outside, Kalinda is gone. This doesn’t surprise Caroline, and she runs down the street. The woman in black is calling her name, but she keeps running.