When Anthony Moore is born in Haiti in 1979, he finds himself at a disadvantage to even his own twin, who everyone thinks is cuter because of his lighter skin. Things don't get any better; little Tony's mother dies when he's two years old. Shortly after, Tony's twin dies, and people begin to whisper that maybe he's somehow to blame. In a culture dominated by voodoo, people think little Tony could have used supernatural powers to kill his own twin out of jealousy. When Tony's father remarries, his stepmother treats him like an outsider and an outcast. Shedding tears becomes a regular part of life. Things seem to take a turn for the better when Tony moves to the United States with his father, but he must still contend with his evil stepmother as well as the competing messages he gets from Christianity and voodoo traditions. Join Tony as he comes of age and seeks to overcome abuse, confusion and cultural differences so he can move beyond The Length of Tears.
The Length of Tears
From Boy to Man, from Haiti to the USABy Alex MorencyiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Alex Morency
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-8418-9Chapter One
The Beginning of Tony.
Tony was once part of a complete and loving family!
Anthony Moore was born in November of 1979 in Port De Paix, Haiti. He was a twin at birth, born to Antoine and Mary Moore. Anthony was named by his father and his twin brother (Alan) was named by his mother. They lived in a typical ghetto neighbourhood in a town called Kouyoute. Kouyoute at that time was an overpopulated area, surrounded by gambling dens, visible prostitution and plenty of cock fighting arenas. I remembered as a kid watching the men gambled on the cocks while they fought, they used a lot of profanity and drugs were common among them.
The home they lived in was made of wood and covered with a rusted tin roof, whenever it rained the roof would leak and metal buckets had to be placed under the holes to prevent pools from appearing and to stop the bedding and clothing from getting wet. It was a two bedroom house with a dining room and a detached kitchen. The sound of rain dropping into the oddly placed buckets, could be heard in every room and created a musical backdrop for the horrors which would eventually take place within.
Antoine Moore was a carpenter and Mary Moore an elementary school teacher; both parents were considered middle class and had, a total of 5 children, all boys!
Tony's mom, was an elementary school teacher, came from a well respected, highly educated family; she was smart and highly intelligent. She was a loving parent.
Tony's father was quite the opposite not from an educated family because of lack of money and the absence of his own father who died at a young age. Tony's father was 20 years old when his father died but, with the help of friends and family Tony's father was trained at local vocational. Eventually he became a carpenter and opened his own shop. He was a man of faith and he believed in helping others, just as he had been helped. He opened his shop doors to anyone who wanted to learn the carpentry trade. This he did for a minimal fee; you could say he was a business minded person. The minimal fee he charged was put aside and saved, so that he could eventually build a bigger shop to service more customers and assist more students. Tony's father had a bicycle which he used for all his commuting; he would do anything to save money to support his family. He too was a loving father but as did most fathers, had little impact on the day to day running of the home. The raising of the children was strictly mother's role.
Before Tony's existence, when Tony's Mom and Dad were planning to get married neither side of their respective families could not agree on anything, mostly because of vast differences in background and levels of education. Despite the family's disagreements, they went ahead with their marriage in 1978.
Soon after, Mary became pregnant with twin boys and delivered a healthy set of twins in 1979 — Anthony and Alan. Anthony (Tony) was dark skinned, where Alan was very light skinned. Most agreed that Alan was far cuter than Tony when I asked mommy Tina what she thought of the color differences, she said "both of my grandson were cute, the color differences was due to the grandparents on the mother side". Other family members I interviewed, Many said Alan's lighted skinned was due to his grandparents on the Mother side, both grand Mother and Father were much lighted skinned (they had 8 kids themselves, 3 were light skinned and 5 were dark skinned), as is still prevalent today, there were at that time, much prejudice with colored-skinned. Lighted skinned women were considered to be more beautiful and lighted skinned men were considered more handsome. With the lighter skin came better prospects as an adult. Jobs and marriage prospects would be better, so all families hoped for lighter skinned offspring. Tony, it seemed was at a disadvantage from the moment he took his first breath in this world.
In 1980, Mary was again pregnant and ready to give birth to another baby boy, her third. During this time Haiti had many deaths that were considered to be supernatural. They were occurring all over the city. The belief was that an evil spirit by the name 'makanda' would roam the streets, especially on the roof tops and he would look for mothers with new born babies, whereupon this evil spirit would cast voodoo spell upon them. Within a matter of weeks the mother would find their baby sick and if the mother was unable to retaliate with some spells of her own, the baby would later die. The makanda, using the malevolent power of a voodoo spirit, would summon the baby's natural life with a curse and later bring that baby back to life in form of a zombie. At this point they claimed success and power, for they could now control or change the baby into anything they desired; animals or even inanimate things. Sometimes the voodoo priest or queen called boko would even eat the zombie transformed baby. To Haitians, voodoo is no different from any other religion. It has followers, a course of actions to follow and a great appeal. It too has divine powers which assure the followers success in life. It should not be scoffed at or taken lightly, for voodoo is as common place in Haiti as Christianity is throughout the world and the two beliefs, at times, mingle. A child who was raise in a family who believed and practice voodoo, would be as fearful of spells and hexes, as Christians are of going to hell.
In some instances, if the Mother tried to stop the curse, her and her baby would die. The story goes that Mary's third boy didn't survive long at all, he died 3 weeks later.
One month after the death of the third boy, Mary became pregnant again, this time with another set of twin boys. Nine months later Mary delivered two healthy, baby boys but once again she was tested by the evil spirited 'Makanda'. This time the evil not only succeeded in taking the babies lives but took the mother too.
Tony and Alan were left motherless and sadly just six months later Alan too passed away. He was just two and a half years old. Tony was alone but for his father. Some said Alan died because he missed his mother, others said it was because Tony and Alan were twins and that Tony was somehow to blame? Was Tony already using some form of voodoo?
When visitors came they would say Alan had been cuter, bigger and healthier. According to ancient Haitian mythology or in many other cultures, it is said that twins have supernatural spirits and powers which guided them and also allowed them to do harmful spells to others, including their siblings; so they said, based on this, that Tony became jealous of being left out and regarded as second best so he took Alan's life.
Chapter Two
Shattered hope
Tony's grandparents from his mother's side lived in New York City for many years; they came for the funeral, having heard their beloved daughter had died. They were also told that she left one child. With only one thing in mind, they came to Haiti, ready and willing to take their first born grandson home with them. After the funeral and with all the necessary paper work already prepared, they were set to take Tony home. Devastatingly for them, Tony's Father refused to let him go, he claimed Tony was his first born child as well and stated that if he let him go, he would not have any reminder of the past. Tony cried so...
