The Farming Of Bones

Doctor Javier arrives and helps with some of the post-birth care. He upsets Papi when he comments on Rosalinda’s dark skin tone. In order to exit the tense situation, he has Amabelle make him a cafecito. When they are alone together, he asks more about her experiences with midwifery, noting her ability to deal with the caul and the “badly placed” umbilical cord (19). He urges her to take special care of Rosalinda, whom he is “anxious” about, and tells her that she should leave her job as a servant in the Dominican Republic and go work as a midwife in Haiti (18). After he disappears, another lifelong servant named Juana arrives and sobs with joy when she finds out about and then gets to meet the twins. Papi and Doctor Javier then exit the house, leaving Amabelle and Juana to care for Señora Valencia and the children.

Sebastien wound up in the Dominican Republic after his father was killed by the 1930 hurricane in Haiti. Amabelle notes that it was ultimately a destructive force that brought them together. She reflects on his feeling of being “haunted” by pigeons (25) and his being bothered by their birds’ cry.