It was fear that I would discover something more. Teresa lunged at me to take the phone away.<\/p>\n
Not with force. With desperation. \u201cArthur, please, don\u2019t open it.\u201d That hurt me more than the message itself.<\/p>\n
Because a wife doesn\u2019t beg like that to protect a son\u2019s privacy. She begs like that when she knows that behind a screen lies a ruin that has already caught up to her. \u201cWhat are you hiding from me?\u201d I asked. Teresa covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
The phone vibrated again.\u00a0\u201cMau: Remember, if your boss doesn\u2019t loosen up tomorrow, we\u2019re selling the old man\u2019s computer. He won\u2019t even notice.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0I felt my chest tighten. I opened the phone. Daniel used the same password for everything: his mother\u2019s birthday. That was the first slap in the face. The chat with Mau looked like a sewer. Messages about gambling. Money. Threats. Photos of pawn shop tickets. My credit card. Teresa\u2019s credit card. Screenshots of small transfers that, added up, were a massive hole.<\/p>\n \u201cTell her you\u2019re feeling sick, the bosses cave in fast.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cCry to her for a while.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cYour dad is a donkey, but your boss gets it.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cToday, get them for the app payment, dude, they\u2019re already coming after me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I looked at Teresa. She was crying in silence. \u201cHow much?\u201d She didn\u2019t answer. \u201cTeresa, how much money have you given him?\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t lie to me.\u201d She sat in the kitchen chair as if her body could no longer support the weight of her shame. \u201cMore than fifty thousand.\u201d I froze. Fifty thousand dollars. Fifty thousand that I didn\u2019t see because I trusted that our household was breathing normally. \u201cWhere did you get it from?\u201d She closed her eyes. \u201cFrom my savings. From the savings club. From a loan at the credit union. I pawned my earrings.\u201d I looked at her ears. She wasn\u2019t wearing the gold earrings her mother left her when we married. I hadn\u2019t even noticed. I hated myself in that moment, too. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d \u201cBecause he swore to me that if you found out, you\u2019d kick him out.\u201d \u201cAnd he was right.\u201d \u201cHe told me he was sick, Arthur. That he couldn\u2019t stop. That he owed money to some guys. That if he didn\u2019t pay, they were going to hurt him.\u201d<\/p>\n I went back to the chat. There were voice notes. I opened one. Daniel\u2019s voice filled the kitchen:\u00a0\u201cCome on, Mau, my boss is falling for it. I just tell her I\u2019m going to kill myself and she gets all worked up. It makes me laugh, but it works.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Teresa let out a whimper. I squeezed the phone until my fingers ached. That wasn\u2019t my \u201clost boy.\u201d That was a man using his mother\u2019s love as an ATM. \u201cTeresa\u2026\u201d She covered her face. \u201cI thought I was saving him.\u201d \u201cNo. You were financing him.\u201d She folded over the table. I didn\u2019t have the strength to console her. Not yet.<\/p>\n I kept reading. I discovered that Daniel wasn\u2019t just asking for food and money. He had taken out quick loans using Teresa\u2019s information. He had sent photos of her ID. He had sold my drill, an old flat-screen, the bicycle from when my nephew, Nicholas, used to come stay over. He had promised to take my laptop the next day. And the worst was at the end.\u00a0\u201cMau: Tomorrow, come over to the apartment. Bring the lady\u2019s card or don\u2019t bother coming in.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cMau: And if the old man kicks you out, even better. That way you scare them.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u201cMau: Those old folks would rather pay than see you out on the street.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I sat down. The kitchen smelled of the rice I had thrown away, of spilled soda, of old exhaustion. Outside, an out-of-tune organ grinder was passing through the street, as if Chicago insisted on playing music even when a house was falling down. \u201cWe have to go get him,\u201d Teresa said. I looked up. \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cArthur, he\u2019s on the street.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s on the street because I put him there. And for the first time in months, he doesn\u2019t have his mother serving him dinner.\u201d \u201cBut those messages\u2026\u201d \u201cThose messages prove that if he comes back right now, he wins again.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa stood up. \u201cHe\u2019s my son!\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s mine, too.\u201d \u201cThen act like a father.\u201d That hit me. I walked over to her. \u201cThat is exactly what I\u2019m doing. What you\u2019re asking me to do is act like an accomplice.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa cried harder. But she didn\u2019t open the door. For half an hour, we stayed there, with Daniel\u2019s cell phone on the table, vibrating every few minutes like a trapped animal. Then another message arrived.\u00a0\u201cMau: I\u2019m outside the Oxxo. If you don\u2019t bring cash, don\u2019t even bother.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The Oxxo was four blocks away. Teresa stood up before I did. \u201cNow you go.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t go get Daniel to bring him back. I went because, even if a son becomes cruel, one doesn\u2019t stop knowing that there are worse wolves out there. I walked down the stairs with my jacket on. Teresa wanted to come. \u201cNo,\u201d I told her. \u201cYou\u2019ve already done too much alone. Now it\u2019s my turn to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n The night in the Chicago suburbs was damp. It had rained a little, and the sidewalks glistened under the yellow streetlights. A bus with loud music roared past heading toward the L-train station, and a man was pushing a tamale cart, shouting that there were still green and sweet ones left. I walked to the corner. Daniel was in front of the Oxxo, sitting on one of his black bags. Still barefoot. His face red with anger. His pride shredded, but not defeated. Beside him was a skinny kid, black cap, oversized hoodie, and a nervous gaze. Mau. He saw me coming and smiled. \u201cGood evening, boss.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not your boss.\u201d Daniel stood up. \u201cDid you come to beg me?\u201d I looked at his dirty feet on the wet pavement. \u201cI came for your phone.\u201d His face changed. \u201cDid you check it?\u201d \u201cYes.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s illegal.\u201d \u201cStealing from your mother is too.\u201d<\/p>\n Mau took a step back. \u201cI\u2019m not getting involved, man.\u201d I walked up to him. \u201cYou\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0involved. You have messages asking him to sell my things and take money from my wife. If you want, we can continue this conversation with a patrol car.\u201d Mau lost his smile. \u201cIt\u2019s his problem. I didn\u2019t put a gun to his head.\u201d Daniel looked at him. \u201cWhat?\u201d \u201cYeah, dude. Don\u2019t be a crybaby.\u201d That was when he saw it. Maybe for the first time. The \u201cfriend\u201d who called him \u201cbrother\u201d as long as there was money just dropped him like a broken bag. Daniel swallowed hard. \u201cMau, no way.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t have anywhere to put you if you don\u2019t bring cash.\u201d Mau walked away quickly, looking back only once.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was fear that I would discover something more. Teresa lunged at me to take the phone away. Not with force. With desperation. \u201cArthur, please, don\u2019t open it.\u201d That hurt … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9206"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9216,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9206\/revisions\/9216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storyintheworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}