Caroline's wedding notes

 The theme of the story is the immigrant life of Haitians who live in New York City, and the disagreement and conflicts among them about the marriage of Caroline and her fiance, Eric. 

The narrator of the story is Grace, Caroline's sister, and the story begins with her being excited about the fact that she gets an American citizenship. Since Hermine, Grace and Caroline's mother, has been arrested before and placed in immigration jail before, Grace is anxious about papers, therefore she asks Grace to get a passport to certify her citizenship. Caroline sees herself as too American, because she was born in American soil while Hermine was arrested. 

Back at home Hermine makes a hot bone soup, which she thinks it heals every kind of illness. The purpose of making soup is the hope of detaching Caroline from her fiance, Eric, who's Bahamian janitor works in high school. Although Hermine strongly opposes the engagement between Caroline and Eric, Caroline does not listen to her mom. The main reason of Hermine's disagreement is that since Eric is Bahamian, not a haitian, Hermine does not like the cultural difference. She further thinks that Caroline, although she has no forearm, deserves a better guy and she should be more confident enough to find a better guy. Hermine's hatred and dispreference of Eric also shows in the scene where Eric invites Caroline's family to his home: Hermine does not really eat his food. 

Back at home, both of Caroline and Grace keep dream about their father who died ten years ago from cancer. Caroline dreams that she sees her father but can never reach him. Grace dreams that her father stands among masked women, and one of the masked women is Caroline. After Grace wakes up, she begins to write her memories and riddles that her father told her before. 

Caroline dreams about her father even the night before her marriage. Her dream reminds her about all the past memories that she had with her father. The next day, marriage day, Caroline tells Hermine that she is kind of afraid of getting married; however, Hermine comforts her rather than asking to break the marriage. The story ends happily as Eric and Caroline leave to honeymoon destination after the marriage, and Grace, Hermine eating bone soup back at home.