Eveline

Natalia García Bonilla

Eveline was still holding onto the barrier so hard that it looked as it was going to break it. Frank was calling her to get onto the boat while he was swallowed by a tide of people eager for a better and prosperous life.

Eveline felt lost. She closed her eyes and tried to remain calm.

"Evvy, fast! "

She listened as Frank called her. She breathed and began praying to God. Around her everything was lost in the distance. She no longer heard the noise that people made, she did not hear her boyfriend call her. Was he really her boyfriend, did he really love her? She no longer heard the noise of the ship, nor of the water nor of the wind. The last thing she heard was the word freedom  a girl's voice.

"Eveline, what's wrong?"

Frank was there. Standing by her side. A sailor. A sailor with perhaps a girlfriend in each port? She tried to push that thought away from her mind. She did not know what to do, she felt so lost. She looked inside and saw herself as a scared girl who needed to be loved, whose father did not treat her badly again, because he did not go home drunk again, and whose family was united. Her mother could be alive and hug her. She hugged Frank and asked him to go and say goodbye to her father forever.

Everything was covered in dust. There was a dead air. That house died when her mother did. Frank waited outside, and Eveline went in to look for her father. She called him, and the answer she got was “Go away, bastard”. She followed those words that hurt her like bullets to find her unwanted father. Of course, he was in the kitchen, sitting and drunk like a vat. As soon as he saw her, he got up and started shouting and insulting her. He told her that it was her fault that the family was like this, she had not fulfilled the promise she made to her deceased mother to keep everyone together. The threatening father looked at her with bloodshot eyes. He just opened his mouth to tell her that he swore to God that he was going to kill her at that moment, that she was not going to look for more freedom through the window, she would burn in the underworld. He began to beat her. He grabbed her hair and banged her against one of the walls. She felt the pain that was beginning to appear in her head, saw the blood running down her face, as she was slowly blaming herself, feeling bad. She wanted everything to end. Did she really do something wrong, or was her mother asking her something that not only involved her? She was not guilty of anything. She was a good person. She did not have to endure those blows, she deserved to be loved, and Frank loved her, her father made her afraid of Frank. Frank was out.

"Frank, help me!"

Outside the sailor heard the girl calling him. He entered as quickly as he could, and saw that violent scene. He did not think twice. He took a knife from the table and went to attack the father of his Evvy. Everything went wrong. The monster of her father saw he coming and nailed the sailor a knife in the heart.

"I hate you, father."

After saying that, she took the same knife with which her love was killed, and committed suicide and everything turned black.

Eveline was still holding onto the barrier so hard it looked like she was going to break it. Frank was calling her to go to the boat while he was swallowed by a tide of people eager for a better and prosperous life.

Eveline felt lost. She closed her eyes and tried to remain calm.

"Evvy, fast! "

She was sweating, everything had been the product of fear. A girl passed by saying “freedom”. She did not know what had happened. Maybe that was the signal she was waiting for from God. But what did God want to say with that? Inside her, she knew that she had to leave, to leave that place that was dead and wanted to kill her. She left the barrier that held her, and moved beyond it. She went to get hold of her freedom, to a new and better opportunity of life next to Frank.

She was free.

December 2018