The German Girl

It’s time to leave Cuba. Anna hugs her Aunt Hannah. Hannah gives Anna her teardrop pearl necklace, the same one that Alma gave her onboard the St. Louis on her 12th birthday. Anna runs and hugs Diego from behind. He turns and gives her a kiss. This is Anna’s first kiss. Diego gives her “a small shell that is yellow, green, and red” (322). They reach the airport. Anna says goodbye to Cuba, looking out the plane window.

Hannah says that she still has a destiny and she plans to choose it: “I can decide where I go, where I aim for. I can be whoever I like, abandon everything and start over, or end things once and for all. That is my sentence. I feel set free” (325). Hannah wanders her house and garden one last time, thinking about Anna. She sees Diego crying out the window. They have both just lost Anna. She descends Paseo, heading toward the Malecón wall. She has with her the small indigo box that Leo gave her the last time she saw him, as they were being pulled apart on the deck of the St. Louis. She says she is dreaming.