[WP] You rose to the top through means considered cruel, but completely understandable at the same time. Tell your story.
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“Y-you…” I started, but words could not flow anymore. Her words were like slaps to the face, each more painful than the one before it. My mouth was moving, but no words were forthcoming. I was numb from shock.
“I took a risk coming here to say all this,” My mother said, “but I needed to. The security cameras in this room are disabled, at least for the next hour, so let me tell you my story. The story of how I stopped being delusional and took charge of my own affairs to rise to this status…”
“Status? Status?!” I said angrily, spitting at the floor. “You disgust me… you…you…”
“I’m not here to make you happy, neither do I ask for your approval. I’m here to tell you that even though I always felt you were bright, you’re really just a stupid girl who’s out of touch with the realities of life. Let me tell you how I did things; how YOU should have done things. How you should do things; that is, if you ever get to escape this sh!thole.”
“On leaving that house in the night, I caught a bus to America. I didn’t know where I was going, or how I was going to ‘make it’ and come back for…you guys. I didn’t know anyone; I didn’t trust anyone, but there was this lady on the bus. Bertha. She understood my plight… since I told her I was escaping from an abusive marriage.”
“You did what?!”
“What it took to survive. That’s all I did, and that’s what you’ve been doing, no? You think Silva goes into the convent and picks the youngest nuns for this nightclub business? No, it’s the girls at bars, strip clubs…the likes. Tell me, what would you be doing something like that for, except to survive?”
“I wouldn’t have needed to do that if you came like you said you would.”
“Only an idiot puts their hopes in people. I taught you that, didn’t I, Mariela? Did your brain cells die these past few years or what?”
“How can you even talk to me like that?”
“Because it disgusts me to see what you’ve become. The twins…you are all they’ve got? Their only hope? This…” she said, looking at me from head to toe, “…is all they have left? Now tell me, Mariela, what are they going to do now you’re stuck here and you can’t send anything back for them?”
“I left…”
“You trust that another human being like myself would actually take care of them free while you rot here? Pathetic…utterly pathetic. Anyway, Bertha brought me here, to New Orleans. A place where anyone could make it provided they were smart. And smart I was. I started off as a barista at a coffee shop not very far from here…”
“And that’s where he saw you, right?”
“Yes. He was young then; well we both were in our late twenties, and he was still starting the nightclub. He thought a few…how do I put this? Matured, ‘seasoned’ hands around the club would suit the tastes of some of his…clientele.”
“He wanted you to be a hoe there.”
“Language, language Mariela. Even your tongue has been corrupted eh?”
“You talk smug while you stand by someone who does this sort of thing to other people? You’re right, you’re not my mother. My mother would never…”
“I was someone who still believed stupid things like values mattered in this life; the person you are now. I don’t care what Silva is doing as long as I have a roof over my head, money in my purse and food on my table. He does what he’s doing; I didn’t go and kidnap any girls or lock them up.”
“But when he goes down, you go down with him.”
“Funny. Unlike you, my destiny is not tied down to anyone else’s. If he goes down, I go away and continue my life.”
“And what about the girls? What about Ginger who died? What about…”
“The strong live. The weak die. Everyone cannot win in this life. There can’t be a winner if there isn’t a loser. No one would be called rich if there weren’t people that are poor. Everyone has their place in life; people who cannot do what it takes to get to the top remain in the place called the bottom. Know this, and know peace.”
Her outlook on life had changed drastically. She was a predator with a full-blown survival of the fittest instinct.
“Of course I refused Silva’s proposal, still thinking of how to help you people. Then, h wasn’t using sugar-coated lies to recruit sex slaves, he was being honest. Oh, how the times change. But well, soon he realized that I was a woman of relative dignity, and I think he liked that sort of thing. A woman beyond his affluence or charm. A woman who could put him in his place.”
“So you married him?”
“Without any hesitation.”
“And then what happened to us? What happened to you helping us?”
“I didn’t just tell him about that, because I knew he wouldn’t like it. I had to make a choice, and I chose me. Any problems?”
“Y-you…”
“You expected me to risk blowing my own cover and death because I wanted to help you guys? I had my race to run. All these things I’m telling you… I had to ask myself these questions. Cry about it every night! Face the reality of the situation and embrace life as what it is. I realized that to be at the top of the food chain, I would have to eat those at the bottom. I left you there to ask yourself these questions, face life as it is, and make something out of life. Obviously, you didn’t.”
“How… how could you expect me to leave my siblings? Your own children? How…?” I said, crying uncontrollably.
“The same way I LEFT YOU!”
I looked at her, shocked at her uncontrolled outburst.
“But then again, I can’t expect you to follow the same path, huh? Not everyone would be at the top of the pyramid. I guess you’re just cut out to be a loser in this life, and your being here confirms tjat fact,” she said, getting up.
“M-mom…”
“That’s the end of this chapter. Like I said, I am not your mother. Get that into your skull, and try not to cause any more trouble while you’re here. I really don’t see any chances of you leaving here, but maybe you can just spend your days thinking of what you should have done right. Maybe then you’ll be courageous to try to escape, at least you’d die and leave this cruel world.”
Her words hit me hard.
“Because that’s the path left to losers like you. Death. It’s the easiest way put, isn’t it?” she finally said as she closed the door and left.
Death.
Was it a bad idea?
******
@Leo_kitti, @Hanzell, @gertu13, @Gwenie do you guys think Mariela’s mother is being too harsh, or is she teaching her (ex)daughter a valuable lesson? And do you guys want Mari to get up and fight for herself, or…
I'd call it a lesson and i don't think there was any other way to go about it. If she went about it kindly, it would give mari some false hope so this way was appropriate. But mari should at least fight ;;-;;