the tears will never fall; it is Rosa's pride that she endures this without crying. But she cannot stifle the sounds when he hits her, cries from deep within her soul.
'Whore,' Ramon says softly.
Helpless, Rosa shakes her head. Her shoulders graze the wall behind her.
'I saw you look at him,' Ramon prods. His accusation is sibilant, precise; Terri can imagine his whiskey breath in her mother's face. Ramon comes closer.
Watching, Terri freezes.
She stands there, trembling, ashamed of her own cowardice. No one sees her; there is still time to turn away.
Her father's hand flashes through the light.
Terri flinches. Hears the crack of his palm on Rosa's cheekbone, the short cry she seems to bite off, the heavy sound of his breathing. In the pit of her stomach, Terri understands; her mother's cries draw him on for more. Rosa's lip is bleeding now.
'No!' Terri cries out.
Tears have sprung to her eyes; she is not sure she has spoken aloud. And then, slowly, her father turns.
Seeing Terri, his face fills with astonishment and rage, but still she cannot look away.
'You like this,' she tells her father. 'You think it makes you strong. But we hate you—'
'Teresa, don't!'
Her mother steps from the wall. 'This is our business—'
'We live here too.' Without thinking, Terri steps between her parents. 'Don't ever hit her,' she tells her father. 'Ever again. Or we'll hate you for the rest of your life.'
Ramon's face darkens. 'You little bitch. You're just like her.'
Terri points at her chest. 'I'm me. I'm saying this.'
His hand flies back to hit her.
'No.' Her mother has clutched Terri's shoulders, pulling her away from him. Her father reaches out and jerks Terri by the arm.
Blinding pain shoots through Terri's shoulder. She feels him twist her arm behind her back, push her facedown on the sofa. Terri wills herself to make no sound at all.
'What,' her father asks softly, 'would you like me to do now?'
Terri cannot be certain whether he asks this of Rosa or of Terri herself. Can sense only that her mother has draped both arms around her father's neck.
'Let her go, Ramon.' Rosa's voice is gentle now. 'You were right. I shouldn't have looked at him that way.'
Terri twists her head to see. But she can only see her mother carefully watching Ramon as she whispers, 'I'll make it up to you. Please, let her go.'
In her anguish, Terri senses her father turning to Rosa, sees the look on her mother's face. The look of a woman who has met the man she was fated for. Lips parted, eyes resolute, accepting her destiny.
With a sharp jerk, Ramon Peralta releases his daughter's arm.
'Go,' Rosa tells her. 'Go to bed, Teresa.'
Standing, Terri turns to her mother. Her legs are unsteady, but Rosa does not reach for her. She leans against her husband now, one arm around his waist. Two parents confronting their child.
'Go,' Rosa repeats softly. 'Please.'
Terri turns, walking toward the stairs. Knowing that, in some strange way, her father has accepted Rosa as a substitute for Terri. Her arm aches, and her face burns with shame. She does not know for whom.
At the top of the darkened stairway, Terri stops. She cannot, somehow, return to her room.
She stands there. It is as if, from a distance, she is standing guard over Rosa.
From the living room below, a soft cry.
Terri cannot help herself. The second cry, a deeper moan, draws her back toward the living room.
At the foot of the stairs, Terri stops.
Two profiles in the yellow light, her mother and her father.
Her father wears only a shirt. Her mother is bent over the couch, facedown, as Terri was. Her dress is raised around her waist; her panties lie ripped on the floor. As Ramon Peralta drives himself into her from behind, again and again, she cries out for him with each thrust.
Terri cannot look away. Her mother's face, turned to the light, is an unfeeling mask. Only her lips move, to make the cries.
And then Rosa sees her.
Her eyes open wider, looking into her daughter's face with a depth of pain and anguish that Terri has never seen before. She stops making the sounds. Silently pleading with her daughter, her lips form the word 'Go.'
In Rosa's silence, Ramon Peralta thrusts harder.
