Chapter 3

Elena

—

Hi Lena,

It’s good to talk to someone from San Diego.

It took me some time to get back, and I would like to apologize for that, but I’m a bit shocked.

This is not quite what I meant when I said I needed someone to talk to, and I’m a bit confused as to why you would send me a ‘prison riddle,’ but so be it.

You asked me if I knew what kind of bars

won’t keep a prisoner in jail.

The answer to that corny question is obviously chocolate bars. Even though the riddle was a bit weak, the intentions were definitely there, and you’ve caught my attention.

I think it’s only fair for me to ask you something in return. I was very intrigued by not only your way of talking but also your use of emojis, so I just have to ask. How old are you?

Marvin

—

“W-what?” I mumbled, confused. I almost fell from my bed and rubbed my eyes to see whether I was dreaming or not.

It was still early. Of course, I was dreaming. This couldn’t be real. I reached beside me to turn on my lamp before I took another look at my phone.

No matter how many times I read the message, it was still there. That Marvin guy from the pen pal program had really sent me something in return. I had forgotten all about him, and two weeks had already passed.

“What!” I gasped as I read through the message for what would’ve been the fifth time. This was the first time I interacted with someone in prison, and I could hardly believe it. “What the fuck.”

I dialed Victoria’s number and waited for her to answer the phone. “Come on, come on,” I whispered.

“Lena?” Victoria spoke. I let out a relieved breath and didn’t know where to start. “Tori, he has answered!” I yelled out. “The Marvin prison guy from the bet actually replied, and his message is kind of rude, actually a bit terrifying—but that doesn’t really matter, because he honestly answered, and I don’t know what the hell I have to do now and—“

“Calm down!” Victoria stopped me from talking before she let out a squeal. “Hold up, he replied?”

“Yes!”

“Oh my god!”

“I know!”

“So, what are you going to do?” Victoria wondered. I hadn’t even thought about that, and we hadn’t even expected him to reply. “I don’t know!” I stressed. “Do I write him back? Do I ignore him? What do I do!”

“Write him back, of course!”

This was all some kind of adventure for Tori. We lived in an extremely brave neighborhood where the chances of meeting someone who had gone to prison were about zero to one.

“Tori, are you serious?” I frowned. “Yes!” Tori spoke and let out another squeal. “Wait, what did he say? Read the message!”

“O-okay.”

I read Tori the message and cringed even more after reading it out loud. My message sounded so embarrassing, but it was only because I had no idea he would actually reply.

“Oh no!” Tori laughed out loud. “He’s definitely making fun of you, and he probably thinks you’re like fifteen.”

“I know.” I sulked in embarrassment. Something inside of me told me that it was necessary to reply, but only so I could clear up our misunderstanding. It probably didn’t even matter because it wasn’t as if I would hear from him ever again. “Tori, what do I say?”

“Just end the conversation on a good note,” Tori told me. “Thank him for replying and tell him that it was all a stupid bet and that you wish him the best.”

“Good plan!”

“Don’t hang up. I’ll send something right now.”

I took my time to type my response and read it out loud for Tori.

—

Dear Marvin,

Yes, the answer is chocolate bars, but I must say, you’ve hurt my feelings😭

To be honest, this started as a bet, and I didn’t even know you would reply. I promise you I’m not always like this, and I also don’t make corny jokes in real life!

I’m 21, by the way😔 (almost 22)

I’m sorry for my use of emojis, but I just can’t help myself😒

Anyway, I’m so sorry for bothering you, but now that you’ve actually replied, it means we can all let this rest!

Thanks for the reply, and wishing you all the best!

Lena♥️

—

“See,” Tori spoke. “That wasn’t that difficult, now was it?”

“Should I send it?” I asked. I had the urge to keep this in my drafts and to delete his message. “You should!” Tori encouraged me. “You have nothing to lose, and it’s a polite thing to reply.”

“Okay,” I spoke with closed eyes as I carefully pressed send. “Wait!” Tori suddenly called out. “You didn’t add any emojis this time, right?”

“Shit!”

“Oh my god.” Victoria sighed, disappointed. “You aren’t making it any easier for yourself.”

I buried my face between my hands and prepared myself for disaster. The plan was to end the conversation, not to start another one. “What do I do if he replies?”

“Leave him hanging, of course.” Victoria snickered. “Wait, don’t tell me you’re actually anticipating his reply?” She spoke. “Lena, this guy is a felon—“

“Of course I’m not!” I denied her accusations. “And just so you know, you’re the one who told me to reply.”

“Yes, so you could end the conversation,” Tori told me. “Anyway, I have to go—I have this important business meeting, and I can’t be late.”

Of course, Victoria was busy.

Unlike me, she had an actual job and didn’t have time to play around on some stupid website. “It’s fine, Victoria,” I told her. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Works for me, bye!”

“Works for me, bye!” I mimicked in a childish tone. I didn’t know whether I was jealous of Victoria or whether I wanted to be her. I made my way out of bed and put on my wool robe before I went downstairs.

I had never mentioned the program to my dad, and it was a good thing I hadn’t. He would’ve gotten poor Marvin thrown into solitary if he knew he’d answered. I didn’t even want to start about my brother. If my dad was crazy, Alex was absolutely nuts.

I made my way to the kitchen to look for my dad, but I couldn’t find him. Today was his day off, and if he wasn’t at work, you could always find him in the kitchen behind his laptop.

I remember how he used to spend his day off with Maddens, but a lot had changed in four years. “Dad!”

“He’s not here. Strange.” I whispered to myself as I turned around to make my way to his office. “Dad!” I knocked on the door and waited for his reply.

Maybe he was too busy today?

I was just about to walk away before I decided to wait it out. What if he had dropped dead in his office?

“Dad, I’m coming in!” I spoke one more time. I still didn’t get a reply, so I opened the door and almost dropped my jaw as I looked at my dad. He was fast asleep with his head glued against his desk.

“Dad?” I whispered and stepped forward. I shook his shoulder and watched as he slowly raised his head. “Hmm, I must’ve fallen asleep.” He mumbled. He wasn’t his usual cheerful self, which made me believe whatever happened at work was something serious. It had to be if it had kept him awake for the entire night.

“Dad, you’ve been working the entire night—haven’t you?” I spoke disappointed. “And what’s with the eye-bags? Did you even sleep?”

My dad rubbed his eyes and gave me a confused look. His look told me, where am I? Who am I? What am I even doing here?

“No,” He yawned. “I’ve been up all night, trying to find something against the Castillo cartel, but I’ve failed.” He breathed. “And now, because of our failure, the son of our biggest piece and Madden’s killer will be walking out soon.”

“Jeez.” I frowned. “Sounds serious.”

“Because it is serious.” My dad got into the story. He loved talking about crimes, and he needed someone to listen, and unfortunately, I was that someone. “The DEA are making a big mistake.” He shared. “They want to work with our biggest enemies to take down another group, the Hernandez, while the real killer is right in front of our eyes.”

“These people...they are slowly taking over the state as if it’s nothing.” He ranted. “They’re up to no good, and the worst thing is that they’re amongst us. They are our neighbors, our friends, our—“

“Can I see him?” I interrupted my dad. “You know...the man that did this to Maddens, I’ve never seen him before.”

I was not going to lie. Hearing those people were amongst us did scare me a little. “You’re right.” My dad pointed out as he opened his desk and pulled out a map.

“Even though information like this was supposed to be top secret, you should know what they look like, just in case you happen to catch one of them on the streets.” He spoke enthusiastically and opened the map.

“This right here!”

He pressed his finger on top of the picture of two men and stared at me with big eyes. “These are Victor Vives and Pedro Vidal, Aka Panther.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “These are the assholes who had a big part in letting M. Castillo walk out free.”

“M. Castillo,” I whispered. It was a name I had often heard at dad’s job. “Are there two M. Castillo’s?” I wondered. My dad nodded his head and flipped the page. “This is the head of the cartel.” He pointed out. “This is Mario Castillo, and the other one is his son.”

“Oh,” I forced a smile on my face. I already regretted getting into it. I knew my dad was still hurting because of Maddens, but this obsession was going too far.

“And this right here,” My dad continued as he prepared himself to flip over the page. “This is his son, M—“

“Here you guys are!” My brother Alex spoke as he walked through the door with a bag full of groceries. My dad quickly closed the map and placed it back into the drawer while Alex looked back and forth between us.

“Dad, you know she can’t see that.” Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He had different thoughts from my brother and did not want me to get involved. He believed that the information the DEA provided was meant to be kept top secret, and even though my dad was his superior, he was not afraid to go against him.

“She has the right to know, Alex.” My dad spoke. This had always been a sensitive subject for both of them. It wasn’t only because of Maddens but also because of my mom, who had abandoned us to be with some villain. I was five years old, so I didn’t remember much, but Alex was ten, and it took a long time for him to get over it.

Even until now, he still felt the need to protect me—just like my dad, but their ways were a bit different. “Too bad,” I shrugged to ease the tensions and patted Alex on his shoulder.

“I was just about to see M. Castillo, but it looks like he’ll have to wait.”

I walked past Alex and left my dad’s office. It wasn’t even a second before dad and Alex starting arguing like always.

“Home sweet home,” I whispered to myself and made my way upstairs, but I froze on the steps when I looked at my phone and saw that I had a notification.

How could it be?

It couldn’t be.

How was it possible to get a response this quickly? The site had convinced me that it took several hours before the email would get to the prisoner and a few more days for me to get a response.

I didn’t even know these people had access to the internet.

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From M. Romero