The Marriage Of Opposites

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, 1824, Rachel Pomié Petit 

Rachel’s husband dies, and she wonders whether he thought about her or his first wife in his last moments of his life. She hopes that his first wife “was standing there waiting for him, her arms outstretched to hold him, and that his spirit lifted itself out of his body with joy” (94). After his unexpected death, Rachel no longer feels his first wife’s presence in the house. At twenty-nine, Rachel feels too young to be widowed. “On the last evening I would ever spend in my husband’s house, I felt a struggle within me. I was free, unmarried, but I was also trapped. This was the moment when I’d always imagined I could begin a new life; now I wasn’t so sure” (95). 

With Isaac’s death, the family is low on money. Rachel can no longer afford to feed the pet donkey, so she and Jestine take it out into the woods to let it go. It doesn’t want to leave, and Rachel sobs over it. “Who would give him bread soaked with milk as a treat? Who would brush the dust from his coat? I didn’t believe I could love anyone, and yet I was in tears.