Children of the sea notes

“Children of the Sea” opens with a man writing a letter

Currently at sea on a boat with 36 other people, he looks at the sky and thinks memories from their childhood.

Looking around the boat, sails are white bed sheets spotted with blood.

They remind him of loss of innocence and his lover’s refusal to have sex with him.

He tells her he was fine with her decision and that he just wanted to be close to her.

The man ruefully remarks that his lover’s father will probably marry her off, now that he is gone.

He begs her not to marry a soldier, because “they’re almost not human”

Back in Haiti, the female letter writer despairs about her life.

The sound of bullets floods the streets day and night. The schools have closed, the old president has fled, and the army has taken over.

No one dares to leave their house. The girl’s father orders her to destroy tapes from the male letter writer’s controversial radio show, but she keeps a few.

The other members of the male letter writer’s youth federation group have disappeared, and are presumed to be either dead or in prison.

It becomes clear that the male letter writer fled Haiti via boat in order to avoid the same fate.

His lover shares that she no longer draws butterflies because black ones warn of death.