Chapter 14: Para Cambiar

"It's martial law again. I can't even go to the store," Inna complains to Do, sitting at the table in the kitchen.

"All because of the warehouse. They say Sirius takes revenge on us. You can send the guards to the store," Do cleanses the weapon.

"Mum," Rene flies into the kitchen.

"Let the phone ring. You see, we are talking," Inna is angry.

"There's no money in my account."

"Call from mine," Do gives his phone to Rene, "and I'll put the money on the account."

Rene grabs father's phone, leaves parents, and runs away.

"I really can't go anywhere anyway. I live in prison," having finished emptying the packages, Inna proceeds to butcher the meat.

"Go wherever you want with security. Just don't come out after six." Do says calmly.

"Does your boss at least understand that every day the situation is getting worse? It cannot go on like this for a long time! A-Card has been a hole all its life, and now it's just a swamp. We need new blood; we need to change the control."

"Inna, please don't start," Do asks wearily. "If everything was so easy..."

"It's easy. The problem is that you're afraid."

"My income has increased, I think about building a new house, and everything is ok for me."

"Even if you build a palace in this hole, it will be unbearable to live here," the woman wipes her hands on a napkin.

"Soon, Chan and I will go for a new product, no one has such a thing in Vita, and things will go uphill," Do, getting to his feet, walks up to his wife.

"So you are leaving again?" the woman turns to face him.

"Not now, but in a week. So while I'm here," pulls Inna over and kisses her on the lips."Enjoy this life. Not everybody can afford it here."

"If you listen to me, we can afford better," Inna snorts but responds to the kiss. Guards call Do, and the man, taking the weapon, leaves.

Inna dials a text message to her father, asking him to call back when there is time, and takes vegetables from the refrigerator.

***

"I'm gasping for breath," Rene pulls away from Axel and takes a deep breath.

"I gasp it when I don't kiss you," Axel grins and approaches again, covering her lips with his own.

"So that's why in the last days, you don't appear at home," Rene mutters resentfully. Axel presses her against the wall behind the house.

"You know what's going on on the streets. Chan doesn't let go. I'll come back as soon as things settle down." Axel strokes her cheekbones.

"I miss you. Every time I leave class, I look for you, but you send the guys."

"Be patient a little longer, little one." Seeing his father leave the house, Axel walks towards him while Rene slips home, feeling the taste of Axel's chapped lips on her own for a couple of minutes.

"Are you going to Chan?" Do is standing by the car. He nods. "Come with me, I'll also see him," Axel nods at his SUV, and Do agrees.

Half of the way, the men are silent, smoke a cigarette, and closer to the boss's mansion, Do is the first to break the silence.

"Son, I know that you and I will not find a common language, but Chan is a dangerous person, don't fight him."

"Father, I love you, and despite what I say to you in our quarrels, I respect you immensely," Axel parks by the road. "I know perfectly well what kind of a man Chan is and what he is capable of. I do some things on purpose; I check his restraint, study his reaction. Do not worry about me; I do not plan to die. You better watch your health and try not to let this son of a bitch push you around."

"What about Rene?" Do looks at him. "I'm not blind. I know that you are still running to each other. She is also my daughter, and my heart aches for both of you. Are you sure you need this relationship? Are you sure that tomorrow you won't forget about her and leave her alone to glue her broken heart? You can lose your woman and your family at the same time."

"The only thing in my life that I'm one hundred percent sure of is my love for her," Axel says firmly.

***

After school, Rene, as she always does on Thursdays, asks the guards to leave her with a friend and does her homework with Maru. The girl sends Axel a text message that she's at a friend's place and, continuing to eat fruit, listens to Maru. Axel texts back immediately, asking her not to sit up too long, and promises to come home for dinner. After hanging out with a friend, Rene calls the chauffeur but asks to stop the car before reaching the house to go to the kiosk. She buys gum for herself and slowly walks to the gate to their yard as she feels the hand of a man on her shoulder. Instead of apologizing, the stranger grins insolently.

"You're really ..." Rene doesn't finish because the guards who flew out of the yard drive the girl into the yard, and the man runs away. Rene sits in the kitchen with a glass of iced cola in front of her, listening to mum's displeasure as she hears the noise from the yard.

Rene always recognizes the sound of his car; even if he hasn't entered the street yet, she senses him coming. Axel walks into the kitchen and pulls off his leather jacket, and hangs it over the back of a chair.

"Are you going to have dinner?" Inna asks the man, who scans the guilty girl with his eyes, gloomy as night.

"Leave us for a couple of minutes." Inna walks out with a bowl of fried nuts.

"Of course, the guards have already reported everything to you," Rene sighs.

"Rene," Axel pulling out a chair, sits down across from her. "Since when do you go out on the street alone?"

"I often go out, or do you think I just sit at home and wait for you?" She nervously licks her lips.

"Don't be impudent."

"Well, he grabbed my shoulder. Well, damn him. I would have gouged out his eyes if I had a pose ... "

"I will break his arm after I talk to you," Axel interrupts her, bubbling over.

"You don't need to talk to me like that!" Rene snarls.

"Don't act like a child!"

"I'm a child, I can!"

"I forbid you to go out without protection or your mother," the man pronounces the syllables of the word.

"I don't live in a jail." Rene is scared. This is the first time she's talked to Axel like this, and let her mind keep telling that Axel is correct, that it is better not to push, her unwillingness to give up overshadows her.

"What's wrong with you?" Axel looks at her, not understanding.

"Stop patronizing me, as if I cannot stand up for myself. I know that it is dangerous in A-Card, but you are not doing anything to change it, and I cannot live locked up and only go to school and back," says the girl.

"I have to take care of you. You are my everything." Axel says softer. "And you must understand that even the mark does not give you security guarantees."

"Stop telling me that," Rene gets to her feet. "It happens, but I'm alive and believe me, I can fight back." Axel tries to follow her up. "I don't want to see you," Rene hisses, and as she rushes out of the kitchen, she runs into Inna, who didn't have time to run away. Axel doesn't follow her. He walks around the kitchen for a couple of minutes and then leaves for work.

Rene walks straight to her room and collapses onto the bed, taking out her anger on the pillow. She defiantly turns away when she hears the door handle turn and realizes that it is Inna. She sighs in disappointment.

"You overheard everything. Do you think I'll tell you something new?" Rene is angry that her peace was violated, and the intruder is not Axel, who came to apologize.

"I'm in peace," Inna sinks onto the bed. "Axel is a despot worse than his father. Don't go out, don't breathe, and rot in this hole."

"I have a mark, and I thought nobody would touch me," Rene sits down.

"It's not important in this swamp; there's no control," Inna says. "Do you remember how you walked freely in Nebo where you wanted? But here is a mess, and I don't know when everything will return to normal."

"I cannot live my whole life in a house," Annoyed Rene throws her pillow aside. "I want to walk, go to parks and coffee shops myself, without Axel and security. Maru and I either hang around at my place or at her place. And even though I love Axel, he's wrong."

"He thinks about your safety but does not understand that you have nothing to breathe. They will never understand; they didn't live any differently," Inna smiles bitterly.

After spending another couple of minutes with Rene, the woman goes to her room, and Rene leafs through the magazine. She is already falling asleep when the phone announces an incoming text from Axel: "I'm sorry if I was harsh, but I'm afraid for you. I'm going out of town on business, and I'll be back in time for lunch and come to school. I didn't kiss you, and I hate myself for that. Sleep well, little one."

Rene rereads the text three times, doesn't answer, puts her phone under her pillow, and falls asleep. Axel finishes his cigarette while driving in the thicket, where the first meeting of the night will take place, and continues to mesmerize the black screen of his mobile. The phone is silent, and this silence is unbearable.

Rene is quiet - the Spirit is raging for change.

* The title of the chapter is "For Change" (Spanish: Para Cambiar.)