Miri Davis makes her first appearance in chapter 2, "Agenda," through Calvin's recollection that his mother gave him to foster care before his grandparents — Angelina and Andre Davis Sr. — took him in as their own.
Miri's decision to give Calvin up in childhood is a defining fact of his early life. The emotional distance created by that abandonment adds another layer to Calvin's difficulty connecting with his own family when he returns from war.
She is a peripheral but significant figure — her absence as a mother shaping the kind of father Calvin struggles to become.