Clap When You Land

Upon watching the same news reports counting no survivors in the wreckage of Papi’s plane, Tía Solana hugs Camino. Tía Solana leads a prayer ceremony with the neighbors who have arrived to share in their grief. They pray along the rosary in a special pattern of prayer meant to show penitence and devotion: “Fifty Ave Marias, five Padre Nuestros, / five Gloria al Padres” (100). Later, Tía Solana prays in private for guidance.

In the version Camino knows of her father and mother’s first meeting, Papi meant to introduce himself to Camino’s mother, Mamá, except that her school friend, Yahaira’s mother, intercepted his introduction. In this account Papi is chivalrous but only has eyes for Camino’s mother: “Papi gave Mamá a […] secret wink” (102). Camino recalls the way dengue took Mamá suddenly. Bedridden with fever, she tells Camino and Don Mateo that they are overreacting as they try to get her to a hospital. When she dies two days later, Camino is left in the care of her mother’s sister, Tía Solana. Between Tía Solana and her father’s summer visits to the island, Camino has been spared the sting of being truly orphaned. Now, in the fallout of Papi’s death, Camino faces the uncertainty of a future without any parents at all.

Ten days after the crash, having missed payments on her tuition, Camino meets with a guidance counselor who tells her that she has missed filing deadlines for scholarships she needs to finish at the international school she attends with affluent Dominicans. The counselor assures Camino that the school will work with her in future semesters to complete her credits, but Camino’s graduation could be delayed. This would also delay Camino’s planned escape from Sosúa.

When Carline returns to Camino’s house to check on her, Carline is visibly exhausted and falls asleep. On her next day off, Carline takes Camino on a short outing to the beach. Although it is a good day, both women eventually fall silent, and Camino imagines they are wordlessly sharing their uncertainty for the future. Together Carline and Camino quietly reject the dreams of their childhood to accept the stark realities that come with their precarious circumstances.

Two weeks after the crash, Yahaira has been skipping school, unwilling to go on pretending at normalcy. Instead, she spends her time in Dre’s apartment with the Johnsons. When Yahaira expresses her appreciation to Dre’s mother for all the support over the years, Dr. Johnson simply pats her and tells Yahaira to let herself mourn: “you can’t run from what hurts you” (123).

Like Yahaira, Mami has avoided leaving the apartment since the plane crash, and her boss has left a voicemail about her absence from the salon where she works. Yahaira gathers a work outfit for Mami, who leaves reluctantly. When Mami returns, they attend grief counseling: a forum hosted by the neighborhood association where Yahaira and Mami sit and listen while other families affected by the crash share their stories of mourning. When Mami speaks, she says every morning is like losing Papi again. Yahaira feels her anger toward Papi reawakened, wondering if Mami knows of Papi’s second marriage or if she is the sole keeper of Papi’s secret. When it is her turn to speak, Yahaira is unable to express herself except through a shrug. Exhausted from the evening of emotions, Mami and Yahaira agree not to go back to grief counseling.

When Papi’s gold tooth is identified in the wreckage the next day, Yahaira’s extended family of cousins, aunts, and uncles arrive to mourn. Tío Jorge is Papi’s brother; his wife, Tía Mabel, immediately begins funeral arrangements, calling relatives in the Dominican Republic and even putting in a call to the local newspaper regarding an obituary. On impulse, Yahaira rises from her seat and plays one of her father’s records, a breakup song: “It’s about lost / love,” (136). Before the song is over, Mami stops the record. By playing the record, Yahaira has gone against Mami’s strong convictions that the grieving process is meant to be a sober event: “music is inappropriate for mourning” (137).

When the conversation turns to whether Papi will be buried in the United States or in the Dominican Republic, Mami is quick to argue that his family is here. Tío Jorge, a lawyer in the Dominican Republic, produces Papi’s will. Papi’s wishes were to be buried in the Dominican Republic. Mami maintains that if he is buried there, she and Yahaira will not see his burial. Yahaira immediately interjects that she wants to be in attendance, reasoning that her father would want his daughter present when he was laid to rest. Although Mami forbids it, Yahaira has already made up her mind.

At Camino’s beachfront 19 days after the crash, El Cero grabs Camino’s wrist while she is coming out of the water and offers her a ride home on his motorbike. Camino tells El Cero that she will give him nothing, to which El Cero replies that she already owes more than she knows. Over the phone, Tía tells her that they have found definitive proof of Papi’s death and that his body will be brought back to Sosúa. Camino returns home and finds Tía Solana has lit candles, in deep mourning for Papi.

The next morning, Tía Solana defeathers a chicken while she recounts the rumors that have been swirling about El Cero and Camino. Camino realizes that Tía Solana thinks that she is inviting El Cero’s advances, but she despairs at the thought of what could happen if she tells Tía Solana the truth. She knows that there is no one who could stop El Cero and fears what would happen to Tía Solana if she did try to stop El Cero: “El Cero occupies / a world of men who care little of healers” (157). Although Tía Solana’s voice is level, Camino can detect her by the ferocity of her hands on the chicken: “she plucks in hard snatches” (154).

Later, Camino and Tía Solana dress in opposing black and white to see the priest about Papi’s funeral. Tía Solana had previously disallowed Camino from dressing all in black, but today she does not object to the dress. Tía Solana’s all-white dress is also controversial as it is a statement of her status as a Santera, a worshipper of Santeria, which goes against church doctrine. Although both colors are respectively taboo in their own way, Camino and Tía Solana dress that way in defiance. As they regard each other in the mirror, Camino knows that in this grieving she has crossed a threshold into womanhood.

When Tía Solana shakes her awake, Camino is dreaming that she is in New York searching for her father. She dresses quickly, and they move in darkness along the streets to the house where Carline lives with her boyfriend. The lights have gone out in a blackout coinciding with Carline’s premature labor. Carline reveals that while Carline should go to a hospital, her mother felt the baby was coming too quickly, and she notes that Carline’s Haitian mother would have had a difficult time bringing her daughter to a Dominican hospital. Together, Camino and Tía Solana deliver Carline’s baby, coaching her to breathe and holding her until they are both weary from exertion: “I switch places with Tía, & my arms grow heavy” (166). When the infant finally breaches, it is small and unresponsive, but with Tía Solana’s efforts, the baby takes its first breath and survives. At that same instant, the lights in the barrio come back on. Camino suggests that sometimes Tía Solana can force an outcome of the fates.