Lost Children Archive

Part 2 of the novel is narrated from the boy’s perspective. Throughout much of this section, he recounts scenes the mother has previously narrated from his own perspective. All section titles are the same as the titles in the mother’s first section (and appear in the same order). “Deportations” opens in the mode of the boy and girl’s “Space Oddity” walkie-talkie game. He then addresses his sister by her nickname, Memphis, and explains that he’s telling her “the story of us, and of the lost children, from beginning to end” (191).

The boy describes the earlier scene wherein the “lost children” boarded the plane in Artesia, New Mexico. He details how he was deeply moved and confounded by this moment, and he watched the plane through his binoculars until he couldn’t see it anymore. He then explains—presumably mimicking the rhetoric of his parents—that this event was not a departure or a removal, but a “deportation,” and that they documented it. He assumes a pedagogical tone, “teaching” his sister that their father is a documentarist and their mother is a documentarian. Though these roles are different, he explains, both of them assemble sounds to tell a story.