Paralyzed

La Pelea

Andrés slammed open the front door, finding his father, as usual, slumped in his La-Z-Boy with a bottle of whiskey. Javier glanced up from his chair, taken aback by his son's anger.

"Wow, boy, what's wrong with you?" he asked, confusion crossing his face.

Without hesitation, Andrés pinned him against the wall. "Why didn't you tell me that Mom was sick?"

Javier raised his hands defensively. "Calm down, boy. I didn't tell you because ever since the day I went to get you from her place, you were so mad at her that you didn't even want to talk to her. I just guessed you didn't care about her anymore."

"She's still my mother!" Andrés shouted, his voice rising.

"Oh really? After what she did to you, do you remember, Andrés?"

"Shut up..." Andrés mumbled, struggling to contain his emotions.

"Do you remember how she looked at you?" Javier pressed on. "How she didn't do anything to stop me?"

"Shut up!" Andrés snapped, anger boiling over.

"Wow, you must be really naive or just plain stupid. Andrés, you have to understand that women will give you sex and fun because they're programmed to tame you and reproduce. After that, it's as if you don't even exist anymore. And let me tell you, during childbirth, whatever comes out from between her legs will destroy your life. Do you know why? Because that thing will become the center of her universe. As for your case—well, you understood how you are the center of her universe, right?"

At that moment, Andrés had enough of his father's bullshit. He punched Javier in the face multiple times, and they both tumbled to the floor. Andrés straddled his father, gripping his shirt as he shouted, "You fucking ruined my life, you son of a bitch! First, you didn't want me to meet my brother, and now you don't want to help my mom!" He hit him again, his rage unabated.

"What do you fucking want? You want me to be as miserable as you? Is that what you want? You don't want me to have a family because you don't? Are you jealous? Is that it?" Andrés stopped to catch his breath, but it was a mistake. His father seized the opportunity, kneed Andrés in the floating ribs, and rolled on top of him, pummeling him in the face. They wrestled until Javier managed to get behind his son and applied a sleeper chokehold.

Andrés pushed his legs away from the wall and escaped the hold. They tumbled to the ground, and as Andrés got up, he charged at his dad, grabbing him by the waist and slamming him through the bathroom door. In the chaos, Andrés struck his head against the toilet bowl. He lay on his stomach, dizzy and disoriented, struggling to regain his bearings. When he tried to see where his father was, Javier suddenly yanked him up by his shirt with one hand and by his hair with the other, dunking his head into the toilet.

Andrés attempted to push himself up with his legs, but his father trapped him by placing his foot behind his knee. Javier pulled him out of the water, and Andrés gasped and coughed.

"Boy, I promise you, if you stop now, I'll stop waterboarding you. But if you don't, I'll keep doing it until you do, do you hear me?"

Andrés spat at his father. "Fuck you!"

"You leave me no choice, boy, and I warned you." Javier resumed the waterboarding. Andrés fought back, but eventually, he stopped moving. Satisfied, Javier pulled him out of the toilet and shoved him aside.

Andrés lay still, but as his father turned to leave the room, he sprang into action, attacking Javier from behind. They wrestled again.

"Damn, boy, I thought you were out," Javier said, surprised.