Maggie is Mama Lola's daughter. She is one of three children, but the closest of all to her mother and the one most likely to take the ason and inherit her mother's alter as well as the responsibility of the family spirits. Maggie is more New Yorker than she is Haitian, and to Alourdes she is more sister than she is daughter. Alourdes is second in command in Mama Lola's household, the main assistant in the rituals and ceremonies, and the one living person upon whom Alourdes most relies.