Evangeline, The Wish Of The Mobster

"Within a week, it will be our long-awaited recital." Jude Callen, the teacher, says. "You are more prepared every day, so I can't wait for that day to come."

The heels of Marylin Durant, Jude's secretary, echo across the wooden floor. Everyone turned to face her, including Jude.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I came to inform you that Friday is the last day for the payment of the recital. Just missing..." Marylin looks at the clipboard in her hand and analyzes it from top to bottom. "two people."

She faces Davine Baker and Evangeline Atkins. The two scholarship students.

"If they do not make the payment, they will be out!"

Marylin had a superb smile, as if to be happy with the poverty of others. That was the fault of her parents, who never let her make an effort in life. The desk job is just on paper, to mark on top of who won scholarship to class. And she loved doing that, because according to Marylin, who does not strive, does not deserve rewards.

"I am sure that whoever fails to pay, will succeed." Jude says, trying to soften the mood that had stayed. "Anyway, put the violins away and you can go home."

As Evangeline carefully guarded her instrument in the shabby case she had, Davine slowly approaches her.

"Evie, will you get the money?"

"I think so. And you?"

"I do not know. " she shrugs, and the two begin to walk out of the place. " My parents find it silly to pay, to try to earn something later."

The entry cost two hundred dollars and the prize for the first place was one thousand. The second and third won only one medal for participation.

"They're kind of right, but I should do it for recognition. I wonder if anyone comes along to take us on a world tour."

"You definitely got your head too far, Evangeline. See you tomorrow."

Evie beckons to her classmate as soon as they reach the sidewalk. The super controlling father Davine had was already parked there, waiting for her. The violinist still needs to walk a little further, until arriving at the subway station.

Evangeline lives in a trailer park in the East Bronx. The school where she got her dream violin bag is in Brooklyn. It takes her almost two hours every day to come and go from class. It was tiring, but it didn't matter to her, for it was pleasurable to be doing something she loved.

In the morning, the girl attended some classes of the community college of the neighborhood. She liked to say it was just to keep her intellect up to date. That's what she said and thought people believed.

During the afternoon, Evangeline worked part"time, as a cashier in a grocery store. Although she spent most of her time on the phone, since the movement was rarefied, it was where she took her livelihood.

And the night was dedicated as never, to the violin.

As she leaves the subway, Evie walks quietly to her home. Although there was a gang group on every corner she passed, the girl could almost feel safe with them there. Since those people took over the streets, the number of robberies was almost zero.

Evangeline enters the house, dropping the case next to the door.

"Mother?" She calls. "Are you home?"

Without answers, she turns the small room behind her mother. The two bedrooms and bathroom were empty. Checking that her mother was not there, she comes to the conclusion that she was there, in the house of some man. Or in some alley.

As she goes through the cupboards, behind something to eat, Evie removes her shoes and pushes them near the door. The only thing I had there was a box of cereal and a pound of rice. She takes the box of cereal and shoves her shameless hand up her mouth.

"Evie? Are you home?"

Knocking on the door was Felippa Moore. She was the best friend Evangeline ever had. Evie was already living in the trailer when Felippa's family arrived with one. They were seven and eight at the time. It had been more than thirteen years of friendship, without a fight. That was an unparalleled friendship.

"Get in there!" Evie says, sitting on a bench at the table.

"Where is your mother?"

The girl shrugs, still eating the cereal.

"Don't you have anything ready?" she checks the small stove and the empty pots on top of it. "Do you want to go eat there in our trailer?"

"No. I'm fine. In a little while I'll take a shower and sleep. I'm tired."

"Did you have class today?"

"Morning in college and now the night in Brooklyn."

Felippa was very proud of her best friend. Despite being a year younger than Evie, she was always her stronghold. It was to her that Evie went, when she needed to cry because of some fight with her mother.

"In fact... I need to separate the money to take tomorrow. Or I will not attend the recital."

Evangeline gets up and goes to her room. Felippa follows her and sits on the small, messy bed there.

"Do you know how many invitations you'll receive?"

"No." Evie responds by taking a box out of a drawer. " Even if it is only one, it is yours."

Felippa starts chattering about the outfit she would wear, to go see her best friend play. Evie opens the box that had a small lock and feels her heart fail.

In that box, Evangeline kept any savings she had. Each time she received her weekly payment, she put it inside that box, to hide from her light hand mother. But apparently putting the lock on wasn't enough.

"Evie?" Felippa calls. "What is it?"

"I'm gonna kill Leah!"

In an outbreak, Evie screams and causes the small wooden box to hit the wall of the trailer. The few coins that were still there, spread across the floor of the room. Felippa jumps from the bed and hurries to hug her friend, who collapsed. She cried and screamed at the same time.

All the value that was in the box, was intended for the payment of the recital and the clothes she would wear on the day. Evangeline was sure that some kind of scout would be there and fall in love with his technique. So I would invite her to tour the world the way she wants.

But thanks to her mother-fucking-mother, Leah, it was ruined. Just like she had ruined the Christmas ball by showing up drunk. The same way you ruined the school dance, coming up as an escort for one of the students.

"I hate her!" Evie grunted, while Felippa caresses her curly hair. "What did I do, to deserve a mother like her?"

"Nothing, Evie. It's not your fault she's a shitty mother."

Sniffing, Evangeline turns away from her friend and faces her.

"What am I gonna do, Felps? It was my dream in that box. There's not a chance in hell I'm gonna get that money in time."

The girl with her hair dyed red and who needed to paint the root, gets up and starts walking from one side to the other.

"Well, there's one thing, but you won't like it."

"What?"

"Do you remember JJ?"

Evie didn't have to make any effort. She spoke of the slender, light"eyed black boy with whom Felippa had a torrid year of love. Nobody knew his name, just called him JJ. Not even Felippa, knew.

"What's wrong with him?" Evangeline shrugs.

She didn't think of a way that that boy could help her.

"A while ago, he joined the gang down the street."

"Really?" Felippa settled. "We talked every day and you never told me that."

"It wasn't relevant, anyway. He knows someone, who lends money. Well, with interest, but lends."

"A loan shark?"

"Yes, but no. I don't know who the lender is. I just know it exists."

Evangeline starts thinking about the pros and cons of that idea. The pros were perfect. She would play at the recital, someone would fall in love with her and take her on tour. The con was one. She would be killed if she didn't pay that guy.

"No way." she says, trying to keep that tempting will to accept from her head. "I want to be alive, to be famous."

"Ah, friend, I..."

The trailer door opens abruptly, causing the two friends to stop talking. Leah, the mother of Evangeline, enters the small environment changing her legs and with a paper bag in her hands.

"Daughter!" Leah smiles wide and tries to hug the girl, who disengages. "That this! What was it?"

Evangeline glanced at Felippa, who understood immediately. The girl smiles shyly at the older woman and gets up, going to the door.

"If you change your mind, let me know."

Evie shakes her head, but she didn't intend to borrow money from anyone. She had her own money. Her mother would have to give it back.

"What's wrong with that girl?"

"What happened to you!" Evangeline supports her hand on the thin wall of the trailer and faces her mother, who was sitting in a chair. "Where's my fucking money?"

"Your what is it?"

Leah squinted and stared at her daughter. She was drunk but still keen to tell some truths to her heiress.

"My money!"

"Girl, you eat and sleep here for free. You don't have that kind of money. I needed it and took it."

Evangeline felt all her blood run and explode in her head. She gave a loud scream, which Felippa could hear from her trailer.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?" SHE KEEPS SCREAMING. "THE MONEY WAS MINE! MINE!"

"Oh, Evangeline! Forgets me." Leah gets up and opens the fridge, looking for something to eat. "Look at this. No food. And you saving money for nothing."

"Nothing? Leah, that money was for the recital! Hell!"

"Fuck this recital business. Instead of looking for something better to get money, you spend time playing that crap."

When she walked to go to the room, Leah kicked Evangeline's case, making her even angrier.

"DO NOT KICK!" Evie bends down and grabs his instrument, hugging him, trying to protect him from further aggression. "It's not because your life sucks that I have to accept mine to be."

"Blah, blah, blah. No more talk. I have to shower and sleep. Tomorrow I work early."

"Mother, please." Evie's eyes burned so much, that she could not stand it anymore and tears fell. "It's my dream. I've been saving that money for so long."

Leah is not moved by the tears of her daughter. For her, the only thing that mattered was her drinks and the various men she had sex with. His biggest dream was for his daughter to use the beauty she has to lure a very rich man out of all that misery.

But being totally contrary to what her mother wanted, Evie had completely different plans.

"I've spent the money." That's all Leah says before she goes into the bathroom.

Knowing that her mother will be hiding in the bathroom until she sleeps, Evangeline crawls to bed and lies down, crying copiously while still embracing her musical instrument. Hungry and sad to have to give up something she loves so much, Evangeline sleeps, trying to dream of a life where her mother is not an outcast.

[...]

The next day, the girl spent the whole day lying down, lamenting the life she led. Felippa knocked a few times on the door, but as Evie made no noise, she thought her friend was out.

In the evening, when Leah arrived from her maid job, she carried leftover from lunch that had been served at her job. Seeing her daughter still lying in bed, in the same clothes as the day before, a drop of the mother she was, appeared.

"Tomorrow there will be a party at the mansion where I work." she says, approaching the bed where Evangeline was. "They need people to serve the guests and I thought of you. Do you accept?"

Evangeline didn't even think twice. She sat on the bed quickly and stared at her mother. For the first time in years, she felt that that woman in front of her was being sincere.

"What do you mean?"

Noting that she got Evangeline's attention, Leah pushed one of the pots to her daughter and stood up to get forks. Only then, when he returned, did he begin to speak.

"You know that I work for a wealthy people." she says and Evie just shakes her head, filling her mouth with food. "So they have a party tomorrow. Big party. I heard someone say over two hundred guests."

"Wow... and all these people fit in there?"

"Much more than that. Anyway. The head of the maids asked us to get as many people as this, to help. And since you need money for that hassle there..."

Evangeline felt an immense desire to embrace her mother, but knowing her well, she repressed at will and continued eating what was in front of her.

"How much will they pay?" She tried to show disinterest.

"I think about three hundred dollars."

"Wow... I just..."

She would accept. She could to pay for the recital and still buy a beautiful outfit, to impress all present.

"He has a condition, Evangeline." Leah says, serious. "In that house, there are very important people. So important, that you would never see any of them in the middle of the street." Evangeline was attentive to what her mother said. She had no idea that Leah, being the crappy woman she is, worked for someone at that level. "The party's gonna take up the whole first floor, which is huge. Evie, pay close attention to what I'm about to say. Under NO circumstances, you can go up the stairs and into the left room. Hear me?"

"What's in there?"

Leah holds her daughter's arm tightly and pulls her closer. Evie stares at her scared, not understanding why her mother is acting that way.

"I don't know and I don't want to know. You have to promise me that you'll do exactly what I said. Come on, promise."

The girl could not understand what so dangerous could be behind a door, to the point that she could not even climb the stairs. But as the only thing Evie wanted, was money to finally attend the violin recital, she would even agree to forehead injection.

"Okay, Mom. I promise I won't go in that room."

[...]

It was summer in New York and the Bronx was hotter than ever. Evie and her best friend were sitting on beach chairs in front of Felippa's family trailer. Evangeline refreshed herself with a mini-fan, which had the hottest wind, while her friend passed pieces of ice around her neck.

"I'm glad you found a way to get that money back." Felippa murmurs, stuffing an ice cube in her mouth and chewing it non-stop. "I was about to call JJ myself and talk to the guy with the money."

"Stop being crazy, girl. By the way, I always wanted to ask, but didn't think it relevant." Evangeline says, turning to her friend. "What's the name of JJ?"

Felippa shrugs her shoulders.

"It's a secret. He doesn't tell anyone."

"Not even for you?"

The girl shakes her head negatively while observing the sloppy nails. JJ was no important pseudonym. Jonathan Jensen was always the nerdy boy at school, who everyone teased and beat. When high school began, in a desperate attempt to be hip like most of those who beat him up, Jonathan began selling drugs at parties. When people asked his name or who to look for to get drugs, he just said JJ.

"Wow, friend. That's sad."

"Sad? Why is that?"

"Because you guys had sex, you do... I don't know."

Felippa makes a face.

"I don't care, Evie." She looks at her friend. "We just had fun. There's no romance at all. So I don't care what his name is."

She didn't really care, because Felippa was the kind of person who didn't create emotional bonds with any man. Throughout her stay at the trailer park, seeing her best friend's mother, suffering for every man she knew, helped her to be cold in this regard.

Quite different from Evangeline, who despite the cold appearance, caused by the abandonment of her parents, she was completely in love with the idea of happily ever after. After being a successful violinist, her dream was to find a great love and live it. And that's exactly what she expected from Rubens Monroe, or Ruby, as he liked to be called. They were in the same community college class.

Evie would drop out of school the first day. She thought that the neglect of the teachers, in front of those who made riots there, was the end of the sting. College should be for those who really want to learn. Who want to have a future away from that city.

Ruby was the only person, thinking that way. He made undersigned complaints, everything for the improvement of that college. Maybe it was his perseverance that got Evangeline to start liking that boy. Or his green eyes.

"Hey? Where are you?"

Felippa sprinkled ice water on her friend, who had her head in the clouds. Or rather, in a life she dreamed next to Ruby.

"I was thinking of asking Ruby out. What do you think?"

"Ah, Evie... I don't even know him personally and I'm bored."

"Stop!" Evangeline laughs. "He's sweet. And I really like him. He's the only man around here who seems to have the same ideals as me."

Felippa decides not to go against her friend. She has always found Evangeline giant. That his kindness and intelligence was too much for anyone in the neighborhood where they lived.

"I'm going home. I have to get ready and go to the party."

"And I have to cover you in your part-time job." Felippa said, lazily. She would do anything for her best friend. "As soon as you get home, call me. I want to know everything that's going to happen tonight."

"You can leave."

Evie says goodbye to her friend with a wink and goes to her trailer. She was quite eager for this job and could not wait for what was to come.