Shane: “yup…, we had breakfast; Tina is an excellent cook, pity you weren’t there…”

Bette: “where… where is Tina?”

Shane: “she left, she took with her a big carrier bag, she went home…, I think her mom is sick or something… she was sad and worried”

Bette: “did she say when she’ll come back?”

Shane: “she doesn’t know if she will be this week in class”

Bette, knew immediately, Tina is running away, she is maybe, even dropping college, Bette needed to talk to her, she tried to call her, but her calls were delivered to the voicemail, she left text-messages all the day and also the next day; by Sunday evening, Tina hadn’t come back.

It is Saturday, and the silent house on K Street in South Boston, inhabited by Mani Kennard and her nurse and cousin Marta Aristizabal, is receiving today the unexpected visit of Tina; who was due to come in two weeks, so, Mani suspected something was wrong with her daughter.

That evening when Marta went to visit her son in Quincy, Mani decided to find out why her child was sad and depressed; Tina didn’t mention Bette to her mother, as she usually does when she comes home, the old woman knew there was some problem between them, and Mani had a strange feeling about what was happening.

Mani: “how Bette and you are doing?”

Tina: (with breaking voice) “… I don’t know mom…, I don’t want to see her anymore”

Mani: “what did she do to you?”

Tina: “she did nothing…, it’s not her, mom…, it’s me…, I’m not normal…”

Mani had talked with Tina two years ago about the blonde’s fears and low self-esteem, and she realized that the conversation wasn’t enough; she heard Tina’s recollection of the events of last Friday evening, and at this time she encouraged her daughter to tell Bette the truth about her family past; for Mani, there were things that even she didn’t know about those distant and terrible days, when her brother in law, Don, tried to rape her oldest daughter, and Mani stopped him, then, the man, tried to do the same with her, and almost succeeded, when Mani was almost unconscious, for the beating; if it wasn’t for Tina, who rushed into the room and kicked her uncle for behind, the woman would have been raped…, as Mani was on the floor and almost knocked out, she heard the cry and the people coming to their rescue, but she never saw what exactly happened in those few minutes, and when she opened her eyes, Tina was on her knees paralyzed and the monster had  just been taken away from the room; days later she gently asked her little girl for details on the events of that day, Tina didn’t answer immediately, but she said she was fine, and that nothing else happened, and nobody could get a different answer from the girl.