White van

In a small town in Mexico, where Aztec culture is still very pure and routinely consumed, lives an education teacher named Maria De La Cruz. With her lives a cat named Afrodita and a stray dog named Magno. In this family there are only three of them, together they consolidate the most beautiful union of friendship. 

Every morning she gets up at five o'clock, takes a hot shower and prepares the house for her pets. She leaves with the first dew of the day for her beloved job. 

At the age of twenty-one, before graduating, she had already acquired economic means to live on her own, finished her studies, and quickly <<Thanks to the Virgin of Guadalupe, she said>> got a good job, but in spite of all her long life up to that moment and taking into account the time elapsed, she had never been able to maintain a stable relationship with anyone. She remained absolutely single, but that did not bother her, on the contrary, she always found it comfortable, there was nothing better for her than her own company. 

One morning, very early, she left for her work destination as she did every day, greeted her pets and promised to return soon. She never imagined that she would never keep that promise again. 

Then when she was walking down the sidewalk; at the right point of the dead end, a dark shadow jumped over a man, you could almost hear the accelerated beating of his heart, she stood waiting for her public transportation to go to work, but waiting for the subway she had seen everything, her soul grieved for that man who was shedding blood without stopping, she crossed the street and screamed in desperation for help, but no one agreed, however she was warned by some citizens who passed by the place, not to get into such matters. But her stubborn heart refused to listen to the good advice of those who saw possible catastrophes coming. She ran towards him, she was ready to get into trouble, although her students were already waiting for her at their desks, she decided to risk everything.

When she reached him, she immediately called the ambulance, in the meantime she pressed his wound with her jacket, she told him not to worry and not to leave him until he was safe. In the meantime he did not notice the mysterious shadow returning to the place, he was not dead, the plan had failed, and no doubt she was to blame for everything, his life was in danger from that moment on.  

They arrived at the hospital, he was almost lifeless, the resuscitation work began with great intensity, the shot had been very accurate, apparently his murderer knew where the right point of the organ was, apparently the fact was planned by a health professional.

She waited, she did not want to move from the hospital, she asked for information, but the silence of the doctors was desperate, her medical report was reserved, she feared the worst.  She was in coma, she had to wait, they gave her her belongings, and along with them fell her cell phone in her hands, there was a number that kept calling, she was not sure if she should answer, but she knew that the right thing to do would be to tell someone, finally she decided to answer, her nerves had control of her impulses, but still she did, she accepted the call but did not utter a word, suddenly a blurred voice spoke;

- Are you all right, what happened, why, you haven't arrived yet?

Just as she was about to answer, the doctor came out and she was showered with questions:

- Did you bring the injured man?

- No, not me, it was the ambulance, but I accompanied them here. -she answered.

- Very well, do you know any relatives?

- No, but please tell me, what happened to the young man?

- Unfortunately, he died, miss, we are very sorry. We didn't manage to stop the bleeding in time. -After saying this, the doctor left.

Again the cell phone started ringing non-stop.

- Hello, hello, hello, who are you? Where are you? Who are you?

She did not dare to answer, she did not know what to do, she collapsed sitting on the white floor of that lonely waiting room; she cried sadly, although she did not know the man, the anguish did not allow her to speak, finally she hung up the phone and the gloom of silence took over her emotions.

Due to repeated warnings from neighbors in the neighborhood where the young man had been shot, he became frightened and decided to turn the case over to the police, so that they would be in charge of locating his family and take charge of the situation, he handed them the young man's belongings, stated his version of events and then left the hospital. With twilight on the sidewalks, he set off for home, it had been a difficult day and he imagined that in time things would fall into place.

She arrived at her humble home, but worthy of a good teacher who dedicated her life to her poor students, she decided not to marry and not to have children in order to take care of other people's children, rather than her pets.

María de la Cruz was born on April twenty-third of the year two thousand. In Mexico City. She was the kind of woman who always had an argument for everything, always traveled by public transportation and deeply hated capitalism, saying that it was not necessary at all and that it only obstructed world peace. She also believed strongly in gender equality.

She works in a public school, where social deprivation is reflected every day in the streets, in the classrooms, everywhere. She helped as much as she could from her humble place, despite the few pedagogical, didactic and emotional tools she possessed. She was a courageous history teacher, whose main responsibility was to teach respect, values and the good use of democracy.

When she arrived, she took a shower and lay down to sleep, she wanted to forget everything she had lived through, and although she knew it was not possible, she longed to dream of a better world. 

The light of the new day, entered through her small window announcing her awakening, she decided to put a lot of will to the new dawn, she played music and danced alone, while she prepared a rich and nutritious breakfast and then tried to continue with her routine life.  After the incident she wanted to continue as she did every day, but something was not right. She would have left her house to go to school, but she noticed that a black car had been following her for several blocks, so she continued walking trying to ignore the situation. Meanwhile on the way she saw the fear reflected in the faces of the neighbors, she wondered - maybe she shouldn't help him, but in spite of everything she knew she wouldn't regret it. Finally he took the subway to downtown Mexico City and after two hours of travel he arrived at the educational institution, entered his classroom and tried to continue as normal. But luck was not on her side again. The work schedule had already come to an end, dusk was part of the place, she came out of the school building and there was the high-end black car with foreign license plates that had been waiting for her all day. The situation was getting murky, she had to act, but how? The police could not be trusted, she had to face the problem alone.

She crossed the street bravely, headed towards where the car was parked, she stopped in front of them, her tinted windows did not allow her to see inside, she knocked on the glass but no one responded, she thought, maybe she was a little paranoid because of the situation experienced earlier.

She was about to leave and a large white van crossed in front of her, they covered her mouth and face with a cloth bag, her days would be darkened for a few months, tears welled up in her eyes, the scream and pleas for help were not heard for her salvation, it was too late. She knew then that she should never have tried to save anyone, it would undoubtedly be a high price to pay. Loneliness accompanied her more than ever on her journey to a clandestine destination.