The Dew Breaker

Michel and his mother are cowering inside their own home, while outside, members of the Volunteers for National Security Militia shout, “Come out, macoutes!” The previous night, Haiti’s dictator (Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier) and his wife went into exile. In disbelief, Michel stared at the TV broadcast of the two of them driving away in their  BMW to the airport where they boarded a plane to France. Baby Doc had been in power for 15 years, since inheriting the position from his late father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, when he was 19 years old. 

With Baby Doc gone, the people of Haiti were eager to seek revenge on the “macoutes,” the militiamen who’d been loyal to the regime. Michel’s cousin Vaval witnessed a group of people tie a macoute to a lamppost, force him to drink gasoline, and set him on fire. Now, the people outside Michel’s house are probably looking for Regulus, who is Michel’s neighbor and the father of Michel’s “hero” and best friend, 18-year-old Romain. Michel himself is only 12. He lost his own father before he was born in an incident his mother says was “political,” although she has given no details.

Now, seeing the group of people pass the house, Michel’s mother crosses herself in relief. Calming down, she complains that Michel’s distant cousin, Rosie, has not been doing a very good job cleaning the house. Michel is in love with Rosie and hopes to marry her one day. Before abandoning them, Regulus beat Romain and Romain’s mother, stole from them, and killed many of their relatives. Michel and Romain met when Michel was eight, at the same time their mothers became friends. Romain didn’t mind that Michel was younger. At one point their mothers had a fight, and the boys didn’t see each other as much.

Michel and Romain were both only children, and Romain would defend Michel from other kids in the neighborhood. Romain was not only Michel’s best friend, but his only friend. Now, Michel and his mother walk outside the house, finding Rosie and Vaval there. Rosie points out that Monsieur Christophe’s nearby tap station has been dismantled, and everyone is collecting the free-flowing water. Michel’s mother tells Rosie and Vaval to collect as much as they can. Losing money fast, Monsieur Christophe desperately tries to turn off the main valve, and beckons Michel to come and help.

Thinking about the hopeful change currently sweeping the country, Michel is reluctant to help, but walks over anyway. He reasons that no matter what happens in politics, people like Monsieur Christophe will always hold power in the neighborhood. He thinks that if the water was allowed to flow, it could be a “cleansing offering to the gods” on behalf of all the dead and dying on both sides of the political divide. However, he then explains that these are his thoughts in 2004, as a 30-year-old man, while his pregnant wife is lying by his side.

As Michel helps the men, he sees his mother looking at him, knowing that she is proud that he is participating in “men’s work.” As soon as she looks away, going to help Rosie and Vaval collect water, Michel hands his screwdriver to Monsieur Christophe’s son, Tobin, and runs away. There is an elated mood in the neighborhood, with people shouting: “We are free.” The cathedral bells are ringing and drivers are honking their horns. Graffiti denouncing the dictatorship, presidency, and “suffering” is everywhere. Apparently the presidential palace has been looted.

Romain’s mother is away on a business trip and his aunt Vesta, whom Michel also loves, lets him in. She asks if Regulus has been caught, and Michel replies that he doesn’t think so. On the radio, they hear Baby Doc announce that he is going to hand over the country to the military, and Vesta comments that everything is going to stay the same. Romain then beckons Michel through the curtain into his room. Back in 2004, Michel addresses his unborn baby directly, and says that his wife has sleepily asked if he is still speaking to his cassette recorder. 

Whenever Romain eats something sweet, he comments, “That’s the price of their eating sugar in Europe.” After dropping out of school, he continued to study independently. Now he tells Michel that the sentence about sugar is from Voltaire. Romain then says that, unlike Vesta, he has been avoiding the news. Michel comments that he could see the “news” just by walking out into the street. Romain admits that he’s worried about Regulus, because he knows the horrors currently being inflicted on men like him. Michel notes that Regulus has many female lovers, and that surely one of them will be able to hide him. Suddenly, he realizes that his mother is probably worried about where he has gone.

Romain tells Michel that they are both going to “escape” like Regulus. They sneak out, and when Michel asks where they are going, Romain implies that this is not the point of escaping. On the street, the boys pass a mock funeral where people are pretending to mourn Baby Doc and his wife. They get into a taxi, and Romain asks the driver to take them to La Sensation Hotel. It takes a long time, because the streets are filled with people. Romain plans to ask his old classmate, a porter at the hotel, to get them a room. Michel grows increasingly worried about his mother. Romain can’t find his classmate, but suggests they have a drink there before going home. They sit by a pool and both order Cokes.

While they are drinking, a young, tense-looking man walks over and sits with them. Romain says to him, “It must be rough, camarade.” He then asks the man, who appears to be his old classmate, “is he here?” The man replies that “he” is not. Romain explains that they are actually looking for Michel’s father, Monsieur Christophe, not Regulus. Sometimes Christophe would bring women to the hotel, and Romain would follow him. Michel has known for a while that Christophe is his father, though there is much about the situation that he doesn’t understand, including why his mother doesn’t ask Christophe for money when she is struggling financially. 

Michel begins to cry, not out of shock, but because he is ashamed of the “dishonorable secret” that Christophe is his father. Romain tries to comfort him, but Michel pushes him away. Romain tells Michel that there is a taxi waiting outside to bring him home, then adds that he is leaving the country. In this moment, Michel realizes the enormous weight that being Regulus’ son has placed on Romain all his life. Michel gets in the taxi and doesn’t look back. At home, his mother is angry but doesn’t punish him. Michel wants her to admit that he is Christophe’s son, but then decides to “let [her] keep her secret.”

The next morning, Vaval tells Michel that in the night, a young man had spotted Regulus trying to get back into his home to gather his belongings. Regulus shot himself to avoid being captured. Michel remembers that before Baby Doc left, he denied rumors that he was going into exile, asserting that he was as “unyielding as a monkey’s tail.” Michel and Romain had laughed about this together. People had felt it was impossible that Baby Doc would give up power, but Michel had also thought it impossible that Romain would vanish, too.

Michel’s mother eventually died of a heart attack, and Michel suspects this was actually the result of her unrequited love for Christophe. Soon after, at 20 years old, Michel left Haiti. He never saw Romain again and doesn’t even know if he’s alive. Through Rosie and Vaval, Michel knows that Christophe is still alive, although he’s retired and handed over his water business to Tobin. Michel tells others the same “myth” about his father that his mother told. When his own son is born, Michel will name him Romain, “after my first true friend.”