No Way Back: Part 2 of 3. Andrew Gross

Roxanne sat next to her. It was clear they had something important to tell her.

      “Your family has a case file with an immigration court in their attempt for asylum?” Harold asked her.

      “Yes.” Lauritzia nodded. “My sister filed it. In Texas, when we tried to move here. She wanted her son to be born in America.”

      “Do you remember the name of the judge who presided on it?”

      Lauritzia thought back. She hadn’t come here yet, and she was a minor back then. Her older sister and father had handled it. “It was Esposito, I think.”

      “We’ll need to find it.”

      Lauritzia stared, confused.

      “We can represent you, Lauritzia.” Mr. B leaned closer to her, a serious but somehow hopeful look on his face. “We can file an appeal, to the Immigration Appeals Court. We can go for what’s called a ‘motion to re-open,’ which basically means you could stay here, if we win. And judging by what happened the other day, I can’t imagine a court in the country not agreeing that the clear threat against your father extends as well to you. You wouldn’t have to go back home.”

      “Represent me?” Lauritzia asked, looking at them both. “This will cost a lot of money.”

      “Let’s just say we won’t spend our time worrying about that right now. The firm can pick up the majority of the costs. And if there’s more, well …” He nodded toward Roxanne. “The first thing we have to do is familiarize ourselves with your case. You’re the one remaining plaintiff of record now. Then we have to find someplace for you to stay. Someplace that’s safe. You understand that, don’t you, that you can’t remain here?”

      “Yes, I understand,” Lauritzia said, her insides warming to what she thought she understood they were saying. The darkness that had weighed her down like a leaden overcast sky began to clear. This was more than she could ever have hoped for. No one had ever been there for her before.

      “We’ll win this for you.” Harold reached across and squeezed her hand. A faint smile broke through. “I promise we’ll win.”

      “No one’s going to walk away from you, Lauritzia.” Roxanne took her hand. “When we said you were like a part of this family, we meant it. Like it or not, you’re stuck with us!”

      Mrs. B’s confident eyes and warm, determined smile infused Lauritzia with a strength she had never felt before. “So I don’t have to go?”

      “Not unless you want to,” Harold said, grinning. “And even then, I believe it’ll be over my wife’s dead body.”

      Lauritzia looked at him and laughed. She didn’t know what to say. Suddenly she felt joy come out of her. As if out of every pore. A joy she hadn’t felt for years, since when they were all children, back at home, before everything happened. It was a joy she felt she could trust, not a fake one, like a governmentale kneeling over a body telling her they would look into it. Which everyone there knew was just a pantalla, a sham.

      “Thank you!” she exclaimed.

      “Not me,” Mr. B said. “I’m just the hired hand. Her.” He pointed to Roxanne. “This is all her doing.”

      “Thank you both!” Lauritzia said, unable to hold herself in. She leaped up and hurled her arms around Harold and hugged him, taking him totally by surprise. And then Roxanne. A warm, deep, penetrating hug, as deeply as if Roxanne had brought Rosa back to life and her sister stood with her arms open in front of her.

      Never before had anyone stood up for her. Stood up against them. She had only seen the pall bearers and those who grieved. Tragedy and death. Now she had something she’d had only a few times in her life: a feeling of hope. The last time was when Rosa had told her that she was pregnant. She was in the United States and would have a boy, and there was hope for a new life for them. Away from all the bloodshed.

      That hope did not live long, but this one was real. One she could touch and count on.

      Roxanne said, “I don’t know if you’ll be able to remain with us when it’s over. Purely for your own safety.”

      “I understand.”

      “But we’ll set you up in a place where you’ll be safe. You can visit. You can get a job, or go back to school somewhere. Don’t be so quick to leave those books behind … you still might get that store.”

      Lauritzia couldn’t hold back from laughing.

      Roxanne squeezed her hand. “Maybe you’ll even find your father …”

      Lauritzia’s eyes filled up with tears. “A day ago I felt there was no light anywhere in my life … just terror, and I had to face it alone. Now, when I look at you, at you both, there is nothing for me but light. Excuse me …” She felt the tide of emotion rushing up inside her. “I’ll be right back,” Lauritzia said, rushing to the door.

      “Where are you going?” Roxanne asked.

      She was going to cry. But she didn’t want to show that to them. “I want to tell the kids!”

WENDY

       CHAPTER SIXTEEN

      I woke up, hearing the whoosh