Sold to Love

Andressa ran up the street behind her mother. She was barefoot and her eyes were shedding tears of pain, as her mother ran in front of her with painful wails coming from her lips as she screamed down the street.

"My son! Not my son, Lord!" And she kept repeating those words over and over.

Andressa was washing the sidewalk together with her mother, when they came to warn her that her son had been the target of a shooting that was going on between the two factions that ran that neighborhood. It was divided by a railway line, and everyone knew that whoever crossed that barrier would be killed. The mobsters from the other side of the neighborhood came to collect a debt from that side. Someone called the attention of the faction to their presence and the crossfire started. And Thiago, Andressa's brother, was on the scene. None of the factions recognized him, because he worked as a security guard at night in another neighborhood and during the day he slept and studied to pass college, because he always said that this way he would get them out of that place.

Andressa, while running up the hill, hoped in her heart that it was a mistake. Her brother would be fine. He didn't go out during the day. He should be at home in his room. They didn't stop to look. They just dropped everything and ran up the hill.

Andressa didn't even realize how tired she was when she reached the top of the hill. She stopped and stared in shock at her mother holding a body in her arms, kneeling in the street. She was covered in blood and screaming disconsolately.

Andressa managed to get closer and look at the body in her mother's arms. It was really Thiago. She looked to the side. Something had to be done. They had to take him to the hospital. She felt her heart beating in her chest. She approached a young man with a rifle in his hands. He recognized her as a resident. She was giving private lessons to her younger brother.

"Are you feeling well Andressa?"

"Arnald... Please take my brother to the hospital. We can't leave him without help. He is suffering..."

Arnald looked at the young woman in amazement.

"Andressa, there is nothing more to be done. He is not suffering. He is dead."

Andressa suddenly felt her eyes go dark, a strange dizziness, and then she saw nothing more.

Andressa woke up in a room she didn't know. The window was closed, but the beautiful curtains let her see that it was already night. She sat up in bed and observed every detail of the place. There was a closet in one corner. She had never seen furniture like this. Its doors seemed to be nailed to the wall. There was a dresser in front of the bed with a huge square mirror nailed like a painting. The room was totally cool. She looked up and saw, in the corner, an appliance with some small holes and imagined it must be air conditioning. The place was very clean. She got up and couldn't resist her curiosity and opened the closet. There was nothing inside. But it was quite large. She would like to have one of those in her house. Suddenly she remembered her brother. Could it have been a bad dream? She looked at the bed she had been lying on and saw with great shame that her feet had soiled the white bedspread. She opened the door and found herself in a huge hallway. She had no idea where she was, but she had to find out soon. Her mother needed her. So she walked until she found a staircase. She went down and began to hear voices. One of the voices was that of her mother. She finished going downstairs and looked room by room until she found her mother sitting on a comfortable sofa, surrounded by men in suits, armed, with a cup in their hand, saying something about Thiago. She walked slowly into the room. She knew all those faces. They were silent when she entered. Her mother was silent too, and as soon as she saw her she went to hug her.

"Forgive me my child!"

"Calm down mom. You are not to blame. I can no longer say the same for the other people in that room." Her voice sounded hoarse. But they heard what she said.

"Oh my child! I had no other way out!" Her mother, Mrs. Gloria was saying in agony. "We have nothing left. We have lost everything! I'm so sorry..."

Andressa pulled her mother away from her and stared into her eyes.

"Mom... We need to go and sort out about Thiago's burial. We shouldn't worry about anything else but that right now." Andressa said realizing that her mother was not saying anything coherent.

"Daughter..."

"Mrs. Gloria." One of the men, known as Francesco approached them with a grim face. "Do what Andressa is asking. She is right. Then you two will talk about other matters."

"But..." Mrs. Gloria was going to argue but Francesco, who was known to be a trusted man of the boss, interrupted her.

"Later Mrs. Gloria." He said firmly and looked at Arnald. "Take them home."

"Let's go." Arnald said calling the two and walking out in front.

Andressa and her mother got out after him and he got them into one of the boss's cars. Only then did Andressa realize that that mansion belonged to the boss of that neighborhood. Everyone knew that he commanded other areas of Rio de Janeiro and that he was not Brazilian, but he liked to live there. The garden was beautiful, planned by architects, and in his garage there were three cars, besides the one they were entering, and a huge motorcycle. Andressa imagined herself in it. With the fresh wind blowing in her face. She could even feel this sensation. Once inside the car, she began to wonder about the faction members' attitude. She lived two blocks away. But she kept quiet and didn't refuse the ride, because she was emotionally exhausted and so was her mother. She enjoyed the comfort of the car while they were going to her house. When they arrived, they jumped out and Arnald said to Mrs. Gloria.

"Tell Andressa about her brother.... Other matters should be discussed at a more propitious time. Both of you are shaken up now." He said and left.

The two entered the house.

The simplicity of the house didn't bother Andressa, but that day that house made her realize how much she was nobody. Her mother was nobody. Her brother was nobody. And nobody cared about their pain. Not really. While people drove around in luxury cars and lived in mansions protected from all the evil outside, they were there. Living miserably. Commuting by bus and sometimes having to go without dinner because the money was only enough to pay the bills and nothing else. Her family worked too much and at the end of the month they were obliged to put dinner on the table as a minimum necessity. Andressa gave private lessons to some children, but she couldn't charge a lot, because her parents were also poor and some only put their children with her to help her family. Her mother washed clothes for them. Again by the kindness of the neighborhood, for they all had washing machines. Only Thiago earned a minimum wage, but a little more than half of this he spent on his studies. What was left was little for them to live with dignity.

Andreza looked at Mrs. Gloria and she was sitting in the torn armchair in the living room with her gaze still. Andreza thought she was going into a state of shock and she approached and shook her shoulder calling out to her.

"Mom!"

She seemed to snap out of her daze and stared at her daughter. Her eyes began to shed tears.

"Daughter... What did Thiago do outside the house? He doesn't go out during the day! Just on the day he leaves.... He never returns. He will never return." She said with a choked voice.

"Did he tell you he was leaving? I didn't see when he left." Andressa asked sitting down on the arm of the armchair her mother was in.

"He didn't tell me anything. He was studying when he left to help clean the sidewalk."

"I don't want to think about that now. Where is he? Did someone take him to the morgue?"

"Yes. Alessandro took him."

"We need to decide what we are going to sell to pay for Thiago's funeral. I want him to have a decent wake too. He was an honorable man in life and he will leave with honors too. He took someone's death. Someone who is involved with the faction." Andressa said looking at the furniture in the living room. They took it before the collection truck.

No one would want to buy those things that were thrown in the trash. She began to make an inventory in her head, and the only things that could be sold were Thiago's computer and his clothes. Because he always made a point of wearing clothes with famous brands, and they were almost intact, because as he worked at night he wore his uniform, and during the day he spent most of the time in his pajamas. She hoped that would be enough.

Andressa got up and went to Thiago's room. She took a travel bag and started carefully folding his clothes inside. Then she looked more carefully at the computer and saw a cell phone on top of it. She picked it up and started to use it. Looking at the contacts, she realized that she didn't know anyone. They were not people from that neighborhood. She took a deep breath and put it in the front of her purse. In the closet she found some perfumes that could also be sold, and threw them into the bag. As soon as she finished putting on all the clothes, taking care to leave a pair for him to wear, she closed the bag and left with it.

Her mother didn't say anything. Andressa didn't expect her to say anything at all. She was too upset.

She walked a long way up a narrow street that no two people could pass, and, with a sniff, she reached the door she wanted. She knocked and waited quietly. Soon André, her student, came to answer the door and smiled when he saw her.

"Mom! Auntie's here!" He shouted and a child began to cry inside and Laura, who must have been Andressa's age, about sixteen, came running and smacked André on the head.

"You woke up your brother, dumbass!" She said angrily and the boy ran inside as if nothing had happened. Then Laura came to the door. "Hi Andressa! Do you need anything?"

"Yes. I need to sell these things now. My brother was shot and I need to pay for his funeral." Andressa got right to the point.

"I... I'll be right back." Laura said with surprised eyes and went inside the tiny house leaving Andressa waiting at the door.

Soon she returned with the baby in her arms and beside Arnald.

"Andressa... What are you doing here? You and your mother are supposed to be resting..."

"I need to sell these things. These are good quality, semi-new clothes. There are also three intact perfumes and a cell phone. And there is still a computer in the house..."

"Andressa... Go back home and we'll talk about it tomorrow. You're hot-headed..."