Even though she had had only sixty seconds to adjust to the situation, she knew that the civil conflict had arrived in their neighborhood. The relative peace was gone. Drastic and violent action lingered in every moment. She handed the water bucket to one of the people. There was a big, brown-skinned man with meaty cheeks who seemed to be in the center of all the discussions among the men. He seemed like the leader. He had almost kindness in his eyes. She felt an instant reassurance emanating from him. She felt a loyalty to him without any logical reason. She caught herself admiring him and realized that he had enigmatic charisma. She had to be careful not to get sucked in. Quietly, she packed a box of mangos to carry upstairs without anyone noticing - lest they get upset at her trying to protect the merchandise from them.
As she put down the mango crate, she heard tires of trucks roaring into their street. She heard glass breaking outside in many places. When she looked out of the window, heat hit her face. Fire flames flared up all over the street. She leaned forward to see the stand downstairs. The men with the yellow arm marking were running off at full speed. Their street turned dark with the black smoke from the Molotov cocktails hiding the sun.
Six men jumped out of a camouflage-colored truck in front of their store. They went right for the fruit stand. "We've seen the bastard go in there!" they yelled. They were wearing body armor and black plastic face masks. They were dressed in proper uniforms with rifles, guns, and grenades. Andres tried to plead with them. He tried to stop them because he knew how corrupt the police was. And his Daniela was a very pretty human. She had such innocence, such perfectly round boobs, and such dark and mysterious eyes. They would very likely rape her. He got a hard punch on his cheekbone for his efforts. The man in their combat boots stormed forward in a tight formation. One of them attended to him sitting on the floor and tied his wrists with plastic cuffs.
Sitting on the floor with the armed goon in front of him, he could hear the paramilitary soldiers throw over his shelves and toss his mattress. They were loud. They were yelling commands. There was no sound from Daniela or the kids. He feared the worst about why they couldn't speak. He thought of using his legs to trip the soldier like he had seen in the movies, but the soldier looked physically well-trained. Those muscles on the soldier's arm alone were so much stronger than his own, which had some strength but were also worn thin by hours of labor every day. The house across the street had fire flames bursting out of a second-floor window. This paramilitary group had no restraint. Daniela was alone with five of them upstairs. The minutes ticked by painfully. He was trying to listen for her voice and cries - but nothing.
The men came back downstairs. One of them had Gabriel's plane toy in his hand. Another was biting into a juicy mango. A third had a pair of panties from Daniela in his hand. He was sniffing them and laughing. The soldier in front of him turned to leave. They left him handcuffed on the floor. He quickly went for the kitchen to free himself with a knife. It was tricky. He cut himself. When he was free, he ran upstairs. His wife and children were gone. There was only a mess of their belongings spilled on the floor. He heard the trucks drive on and leave their street.
He ran back out into the street to see which way the trucks were headed. He started running after them when he heard a voice yelling his name: "Andres!!!" It came from high up. He turned around. He saw his wife waving down at him from the rooftop. She had apparently climbed out of the window to hide on the roof with the kids. He was relieved that they were okay.
The kids had taken it well. Gabriel had realized the seriousness of the situation and had followed Daniela's directions quickly. Enssell had copied everything that Gabriel had done. Kids aren't always helpless and scared. They realize the nature of the situation and what they must do. Daniela had thought quickly on her feet. It was Andres who was the most traumatized by the situation. He had thought the five soldiers were taking turns raping Daniela. The images that his mind had conjured up while he was waiting handcuffed on the floor were so vivid. They wouldn't leave him alone. Burly arms restraining her slender wrists. Her pussy was exposed from torn clothes, and masked men obsessed with shoving their meet in there while they oggled her breasts and got kicks out of her modesty and helpless struggle. They'd let her struggle for sport.
The paramilitaries had left a graffiti sign above the store entrance. The sign was ominous. Were they marked as traitors? Did they leave it to ostracize them? Did they leave it to make it easy to come back? Was it simply vandalism?
The building across the street had burned on the inside leaving the stone shell of the building. Two stands down, the door was broken and the shelves were ripped out of the wall. Oranges were spilled on the street and stomped on. A few cars had burned out. The civil conflict had arrived at their doorsteps.
The days that followed brought random surprise raids by the paramilitary. They would stop their truck in the middle of the night to storm upstairs and find the family cowering behind their beds. They'd check if the "bastard" was using them as a safe house and then leave. As the paramilitary became familiar with them. There was a red-haired guy who developed a liking for Daniela. This once, he made her take off her t-shirt. With her body shaking, she'd lift the t-shirt overhead according to the order to reveal her blue satin bra underneath it and let him watch at leisure until the leader stopped it by calling, "Break's over!" What are you going to do when men with fully automatic weapons order you in harsh words? It was only a matter of time before the red-haired guy would lose even more restraint.
Andres couldn't take it anymore. With vivid images, he pictured himself the whole day raising a red-haired child - having to love but hating whom it represented with all his heart. And he pictured his dear Daniela having dual loyalties if she were dicked down and impregnated by the red-haired soldier. Brooding, he didn't speak at dinner. Not even the kids dared to play a trick on him like they usually do when he's in a bad mood. Because then he'd play the monster and chase them. This time was different. Daniela was anxious at the start of dinner. When she had finished the potatoes, her anxiety had turned into certainty. She could feel in her bones what was coming. She could feel that there wouldn't be a choice. So she stopped being anxious and started mentally preparing for what she had to do next. The kids had no clue. They had never experienced one of their parents like that. And then when everyone had picked up the last crumb of their chocolate chip cookie from the plate, he said it: "El Norte."
For a few days, she had wondered about how and when he would bring it up. When their first neighbor had left for the long track, she knew that Andres would ask himself if he should go as well. Andres has always been ambitious. He had gone for her because she was the number one on the swimming team. Somehow he had gotten it into him that a swimmer's body was his preference. While she was walking around with a gold medal around her neck in school, plenty of guys were charming her with compliments. But there was only one Andres who showed up every morning at her parent's house with a different flower in his hand to offer to her and walk her to school. It wasn't the bravado that won her over, but all the time spent talking on their school commute had brought them closer together. Having learned his secrets and habits from conversation, she was naturally curious and her curiosity led her to one day wanting to see it and then more. That was when they were eighteen years old. He was still the same person. He never settled for something passable.
The kids took it quietly. They had become much quieter since the nightly raids. The experience of unrestraint and absolute power was new to them. Everything had seemed like play before. Yet watching their parents quietly obey commands promptly and completely and the way they tried to hide their inner struggle to those commands had taught them obedience in a way no loving parent could have done. Their play had changed as well. Gabriel had started giving Enssell commands like "Clean my plate!" As innocently as Gabriel was copying what he saw, he also displayed the same cruelty without recognizing it. Seeing the darkness affect the kids had made it clear to Daniela that they had to leave.
She had visited her mother daily to spend as much time with her as possible before leaving. She had liquidated all their long-term obligations. She had notarized a deed that would transfer the shop to her brother as soon as Andres would sign it. She had made a packing list of what she and the kids would need for the trip. She had also laminated a map through the jungle, which she had printed out. She, she, and she again had done everything quietly to prepare. When the seed of the idea had started growing in his mind, she had already known where it would end up. This sweet man was so familiar to her like the back of her hand.
