Sharon Travels to Puerto Rico to Investigate Victoria

Sharon’s trip to Puerto Rico to investigate Victoria Rogers turns the family’s effort to challenge the case against Fonny into a personal, time-sensitive search. Sharon travels while carrying the knowledge that Tish is pregnant and that she is about to become a grandmother; in Puerto Rico, she must find her way through unfamiliar places and uncertain contacts without knowing whether she will reach the woman she seeks.

Departure and the pressure of time

Sharon arrives on an evening plane with hundreds of other passengers. She knows exactly how much money she has, and therefore how quickly she must act. The journey begins under a narrowing deadline: time is not an abstraction but a limit on what she can afford to do before the opportunity to find Victoria slips away.

She has brought only a small overnight bag, allowing her to bypass the luggage line. Hayward has reserved a small hotel for her in San Juan and written its address on a piece of paper. These practical arrangements give her a place to begin, but the search itself remains hers to manage. The low-hanging stars and the air on her skin recall Birmingham, a place she has not seen in a long time; the moment briefly connects the unfamiliar island to her own past without easing the demands of the present mission.

Making a way into the search

Sharon quickly decides to rely on Jaime, who is there, knows the town, and can drive. She recognizes that he is very young, but judges that his youth may be useful: an older person with more knowledge could become a complication. Her plan is to enter the nightclub, observe it, and see Pietro and possibly Victoria without approaching either of them. Because a lone woman cannot easily enter such a place unescorted—and because she does not know whether the club may be a whorehouse—she considers presenting herself as a wide-eyed American tourist. Being Black in Puerto Rico complicates that strategy as well.

The outward performance conceals the private stakes. Sharon alone knows that she is Tish’s mother, that she is about to become a grandmother, that she is past forty, and what she is doing there. When Jaime takes her bag and leads the way, Sharon thinks that one obstacle is behind her, then begins to feel frightened. Her fear does not end the mission; instead, it accompanies the quick choices required to continue it.

The search reaches the favella

By nine thirty, Jaime has brought Sharon by taxi to the favella. He knows roughly where the particular dwelling is, but he is not sure he knows the woman they are looking for. His uncertainty leaves the search unresolved even as they reach its next location: Sharon has moved closer to a possible contact, not yet to confirmation or an answer.

The favella confronts them with a landscape Hayward had warned Sharon he could not describe and doubted she would wish to visit. Under the bright sun and beside the blue sea, the settlement is also a garbage dump. Dwellings stand on it, some raised on stilts as if trying to escape the heap; some have corrugated metal roofs, and some have windows. Children are everywhere. The smell is overwhelming, while children slide down the mountain, laugh, splash in and out of the sea, and seem not to care. Jaime walks beside Sharon, proud to protect her but uneasy about the errand.

Stakes and unresolved outcome

The journey’s risk is measured in both practical and intimate terms. Sharon has limited money and little time, and the approach she devises depends on local help, observation, and careful self-presentation. At the same time, the search is bound to the family waiting in New York: Tish’s pregnancy makes Sharon’s journey an effort undertaken for her daughter and the child soon to be born, as well as for Fonny.

The evidence of the trip ends with Sharon and Jaime in the favella, still uncertain about whether they have found the right dwelling or woman. Her arrival and persistence mark progress, but not success: the search for Victoria remains open.