The Great Divide

Ada arrives at The Oswalds’ home. She has never been inside such a grand residence, and she vows to keep this job because she thinks that she could not find a better position anywhere else. She is to take care of Marian Oswald, who is ill with pneumonia. Ada is given a small room of her own next to the kitchen, and despite its small size, she is grateful to have her own space. She and Marian get along well, and Ada is impressed by how polite and respectful the white woman is to a younger woman of color. Ada does not, however, get along with Antoinette, the cook. Antoinette seems judgmental and standoffish, but Ada tries not to let it bother her. Marian has not improved, but her condition also has not worsened. It is clear to Ada that there is some discord between Marian and her husband, and Ada tries her best to honor Marian’s wishes and to allow her to make her own decisions.

In Barbados, Millicent is still ill with pneumonia and mostly confined to her bed. She and her mother read Ada’s letter aloud and are both happy to hear that Ada is well and that she has found work. Millicent needs surgery to remove the fluid that has built up in her lungs, but her mother Lucille cannot afford it. Millicent begins to feel better, and she asks her mother about her father. She has always known the secret of her parentage and is curious about the white man with whom she shares blood but has no relationship. She sneaks off to the sugar estate where he lives to spy on him, and although she stands directly in the line of his sight, he does not recognize her. Millicent is disappointed; she had been sure that he would have been able to sense, if not see, their relation.

Millicent’s father Henry actually saw and recognized her, although he mistook her for the ghost of her mother. Seeing her startled him, and it causes him to reflect on the nature of his love for Lucille. Believing her dead, he asked someone to see if he could find a record of her passing. To the best of his abilities, he feels, he’d loved and been good to Lucille, helping her to leave the estate with enough to make a life for her and their girls. He knew that his wife had found out about their relationship and that she’d been ragefully angry about the betrayal, although it was also clear that his wife did not love him. Rather, she felt a sense of possessiveness: He was hers.

Each day, Francisco hopes that Omar will return home, and each day he remains disappointed by the boy’s continued absence. As he waits for his son, he reflects on recent Panamanian history. The United States had become a powerful player in the region when Panama sought independence from Colombia. Although the US did back Panamanian separatists, it did so solely because it wanted to build and control a canal through Panama. US involvement in the region fundamentally changed the nature of life in Panama, and Francisco resents the loud American workers and the subtle shift in power balance that let everyone know that the United States was now in charge. In light of all of this, he was particularly devastated when Omar took a job working on the canal’s construction, and he is sure that his son has disappeared as a result of the silence that descended upon their relationship with Francisco’s disapproval. Desperate, Francisco seeks out Doña Ruiz, asking for news of his son. She tells him that she does not know where Omar is.

After two weeks in the hospital, ill with malaria, Omar is released. He returns home to the house he shares with his father, expecting him to be happy about his presence. Francisco walks into the house and, without saying anything to Omar, goes into his room. Omar returns to work with difficulty. Malaria has left him weak, and he struggles to make it through his days. Miller, the foreman, is unpleasant to work for, and the man’s racism is apparent to everyone. As the workmen break for a lunch of bland rice and beans (which is provided to them, but for which they must pay), a car passes by and everyone stops to watch John Oswald, who is already famous in Panama, pass by.

In Gatún, Valentina begins to go door to door to ask the townspeople if they, too, have received relocation notices and whether they signed the papers in agreement. Quickly it becomes apparent that this method is inefficient, and she decides instead to call a meeting of the entire town. They gather in the local church, and the mood is tense. Valentina is disappointed by how many people are ready to give up and move, but it is pointed out that the country already sold the land rights to the United States for $10 million. They decide that their only recourse is to write a letter to their government expressing their objection to the plan to move their town. Joaquín, they hope, will deliver it for them. Joaquín brings the letter into the city and attempts to deliver it to the opulent presidential palace. He is turned away by one of the compound’s many armed guards, but the man claims that he will deliver the letter on Joaquín’s behalf. When Joaquín returns to the village, he and Valentina hatch a plan for all of the townspeople to sit in front of their homes, denying the bulldozers access. They hope to get the attention of the press and to show the government that they will not be pushed from their houses.

Ada has now been working for the Oswalds for two weeks and has had the opportunity to begin sending money home to her mother and sister. Marian’s condition has continued to worsen, and Ada spends much time with her sickly employer. The two get along well, and Marian is pleased to hear that Ada has been able to obtain a rudimentary education. One afternoon, Marian has a particularly violent fit of coughing, and her fever increases dramatically. Ada tries to cool Marian down with ice packs while she waits for the doctor to arrive with medicine that will lower her fever. The hours pass and he does not arrive, so Ada runs to the commissary herself to purchase some anti-fever pills. The commissary is divided into two halves, one for workers paid in gold and the other for workers paid in silver. They object to Ada having run into the gold side and complain loudly until she explains that she is there to buy medication for Mrs. Oswald. At that point, the clerks seem ashamed, and Ada feels vindicated. The doctor, who was delayed by an issue with the train, arrives at the house to find Marian alone in her room. She is sleeping quietly, but he is worried about her prognosis and is no longer sure that she is going to pull through her illness.