Chapter 4 Through the Screen

Thanks to Verarose19, When-A-Sprite-Meets-Unicorn, Ms S, Johanna002 for reading and reviewing.

Sory for the late publication. I will try to resume the weekly updates. I hope that all of you are doing well.

XXX

The truck collecting the trash had already passed infront-of the building twice . Maritza moaned, awakened from a restful sleep by the sound of the engine, and the voices of the guys screaming incomprehensible stuff. She wanted to check the time, but she didn't have enough strength for that. She rolled in bed.

Before falling asleep again, she was overcome by a feeling of deep loneliness . Flaca and Juliana's absence suddenly strucked her. It was both cruel and strange.

Maritza dreamed. She dreamed that she was walking through the apartment looking for her phone. She couldn't find it. When she got it, she wanted to check the time, but gave up. She called Flaca who did not answer. The voice on her answering machine was metallic, distant.

XXX

She had heard this noise before, in an ad, for an online sales site. It was the ringing of a girl's cell phone, a girl who was sorting her clothes. It took a moment for her to realize that the noise was coming from her own phone, tucked under the pillow next to hers. She opened her heavy eyelids. Her head ached, and a ray of light from outside dazzled her. Nobody fucking wanted to let her sleep. Her phone beeped again. She grabbed it. A facetime of Blanca. She didn't know why she did it, yet she picked up.

She put a hand in front of her eyes to shield herself from the light, which was now coming in from everywhere.

"Hi Blanca," she mumbled.

Blanca had a clear laugh and a lovely smile. Maritza was always surprised when she heard her laugh. Yet Blanca laughed often now.

"What the hell are you doing? Did you forget about me?"

"You can speak less loudly. I was asleep."

"I see that? What time did you get home last night?"

"I came home this morning," Maritza replied, hoping Blanca wouldn't react like Flaca.

"Ok. You want me to let you sleep. You look like a shit."

"Thank you. I have the right to have a little fun," Maritza retorted.

"I didn't tell you anything." Blanca put the phone on the table in front of her. Maritza noticed pieces of glued paper, string, something that looked like yellow cotton. She even thought she saw cut-out magazine pages.

"What's that mess at your place?" She asked, intrigued.

"The stuff on the table. I'm going to make collages with the girls. I got everything ready while they take their naps."

"They take a nap in the morning?"

"It's 2:00 p.m."

"Ho." Blanca had said this with neutrality. There was no reproach in her voice. It was worse. Maritza felt a hint of jealousy. Through the screen, she looked at this table covered with joyful papers. She watched Blanca, who was quietly waiting for her daughters to finish their naps to play with them. Why couldn't she do this with Juliana? Flaca did it, though. Their daily life was shitty, but Flaca embellished it with stories of princess and reassuring rituals. It all seemed so easy for her.

"I'm going to go drink some water, and try to eat something," said Maritza. She wanted to end this conversation, to be alone again.

"Wait," Blanca asked. "We never have time to talk."

"I'll call you later,"

"When is Flaca coming home?" Blanca asked.

Maritza stood up, staggering. The pain was growing stronger in her poor head.

"In 4 days. I still have 4 days to find work and show that I am a responsible adult."

Blanca grabbed a piece of string in front of her. She played with it. She was probably thinking about what to say. Maybe she had spoken to Flaca.

"Did you have a fight?" She asked finally, cautiously.

"Don't you think? ... She is mad at me because I go out with my cousins every now and then. Sometimes I wonder if she was in Litchfield with us, you know. I think she doesn't want to enjoy her freedom. "

"She works all week, and took Juliana with her to go too see Gloria?"

Maritza nodded, annoyed.

"Maybe that's why she's mad at you," Blanca concludes. The sarcastic, slightly nasty girl Maritza had gotten to know at Ice was back.

While they were talking, she had walked to the living room. She looked at the flowery curtains that surrounded the small space where they had set upJuliana's bedroom.

"I had no idea that taking care of a child would be so difficult. Maybe it's absolutely fantastic for you and Flaca, but I need to get out there, and do something else sometimes."

XXX

She had only lived with Juliana for a few months after her birth. When she had been arrested, her sister brought the baby to her at Fdc in Brooklyn. Maritza looked at her daughter from the other side of the glass. Her eyes had filled with tears. She had clutched the wall phone in her hand. She had felt the tears roll down her cheeks. Isabella and she had stood there without saying anything. Seeing her little girl didn't allow her to forget where she was: the screams, the alarms, the smell of the tiny cell she shared with a girl who slept all the day.

"Are you going to keep her with you?" she sobbed, giving her sister a worried look.

"Yes, but, I'm going to take her with Me... over there... Maritza. I'm moving soon, you know."

"I know. How could I forget that?" Her voice was louder. A guard was watching her.

"I prefer that she wing live with you on the other side of the country rather than leting her to mom," she added.

She moved to touch the window, but put her hand back on her uniform pants, resigned. It was no useful.

She hadn't seen Juliana until Mother's Day at the Camp. Then months passed, before she could be the mother of her daughter again.

XXX

"Diablo, go get Flora, she's going to wake up her sister."

Blanca's voice suddenly echoed through her phone.

"Goodbye," said Maritza.

"Don't hang up," Blanca begged hastily. Why didn't she want to let her go? she continued to speak.

"We're in the same boat, you and me."

"Diablo turned into a desperate housewife?" Maritza snapped.

"We're both in a country we didn't choose. But, you live with Flaca because you wanted to. So give yourself time to learn to live together."

"Yeah. Easy to say."

Maritza put a glass under the tap opened it. The sound of the water falling inside was soothing. She took a few sips with two tylenols. Soon she

would feel better.

"You live in a nice little town," she said to Blanca. "It's very different here. I was born in Colombia, but I don't feel at home, it's the same forFlaca."

"You have something in common." Blanca was still smiling. "It wasn't easy here at first, but we did everything to make it work. We had a lot of arguments sometimes."

It was pretty reassuring. Maritza sat down on the couch, and looked at Juliana's small bed through the curtains. She could keep chatting a bit with Blanca. It was not so bad.