stated in his critical essay how the loss of the first child in the story “The Children of the Sea” was somehow an omen of the other dead child that Marie in “The Pool and the gardenias” ” seems to find. “I never knew before that dead babies were purple. The lips are the most purple because the baby is so dark. Purple like the sea after sunset." (p25, first paragraph in Children of the Sea), Marie gives a similar description saying: “She was very pretty. Bright, shiny hair and dark brown skin like mahogany coca. Her lips were wide and purple, like those African dolls you see in tourist windows but could never afford to buy. (p91 first sentence in The Pool and the Gardenias.) This was well stated by Davis Rocio in his critical essay and a good point that can connect the stories even more, Marie desperately needed to have a baby because she would always require her attention and it would be something of her own, she needed the love and attention that her husband nor anyone gave her, that's why she took Rose, the abandoned little girl who was left on the street to die even though these things in Ville Rose were considered a crime, and he held her until the smell became so strong that he couldn't even get close to her. Marie had reached a point of madness due to all the pain she had endured, which the Dominican man didn't take long to discover. The rest of the people in her daily life didn't even notice that one day she was without baby and the next day with, no one cared about anyone in town, at least her