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There are still times I wake up at three o'clock in the morning and peer into the darkness. At that hour and in that loneliness, I hear her, a black furred thing lurking in the corners of my life, her magenta mouth opening, wailing over some violation that lies at the center of my art.

The cat that continues to appear in Yolanda's dreams represents her home, the Dominican Republic, which reproaches her for leaving. This psychological distress unfolds into further traumas, which can be traced back to her being uprooted from the Dominican Republic, her culture, and her extended family at a very young age. This passage concludes the novel, indicating that this haunting is the root and simultaneous conclusion of her sense of violation. This violation stems from her experience as a child immigrant, and becomes the focus of her creative endeavors and her mature understanding of her cultural and personal identity. Her writing and poetry will center on the haunting that begins with the black cat and continues throughout her adult life as she struggles to incorporate the past into her plans for the future.

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