His thoughts turned back to Mariana and the bigger problem at hand. The problem was that Mariana was a little insane. A paranoid schizophrenic, the softness in her eyes could just as easily be replaced by unrelenting and unapologetic rage as she lashed out at those closest to her when her brain did its twisted dance and her medications weren’t working. Mariana not coming home from her shitty job in the kitchen of Jalisco’s didn’t mean she was out, laughing and joy riding with her friends. It meant she was lost to them, especially if she was in the middle of an episode.
She had run away for days at a time before. Eventually, they would find her when she slipped into a moment of lucidity and told someone at the shelter or hospital or jail cell she ended up in who she belonged to. Ariel and Sylvia would rush over and, more often than not, find her covered in filth and fully engulfed in the terror her brain created.
There was no worse combination of words to Ariel than, “Mariana never came home.” It meant that everyone’s nightmare was beginning again
She had run away for days at a time before. Eventually, they would find her when she slipped into a moment of lucidity and told someone at the shelter or hospital or jail cell she ended up in who she belonged to. Ariel and Sylvia would rush over and, more often than not, find her covered in filth and fully engulfed in the terror her brain created.
There was no worse combination of words to Ariel than, “Mariana never came home.” It meant that everyone’s nightmare was beginning again