Embrace This Silence

Interlude: A Chelsea Story

1

It was the Christmas of 2008. Over the course of the past year, Chelsea's family lost their home, her father lost his job, and her mother lost her job. Chelsea's older brother made the tough decision of dropping out of college for now, and he works at the local fast food joint to make sure the family can make ends meet, which they hardly can.

"I'm sorry, we couldn't get much." Chelsea's Father, Miguel, said. He pushed up on his glasses. He looked sad with a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked like a man who had lost it all, everything up in smoke, and it wasn't even his fault. It was the crooks on Wall Street.

"Dad, it's okay." Chelsea said to him and walked over to give him a hug. The small Christmas tree took up a good portion of the small apartment they now lived in. It wasn't in the best part of town, but they didn't have much of a choice. Choices were fading, these days. And what happens when choices run out? Where does the freedom to choose go? Where does this American Dream go?

Chelsea opened up her single gift. It was a Nintendo Wii. Dad-"

"Don't. Just enjoy." He tried his best to smile. Chelsea continued to tear open the box and a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl was included with the gift. Chelsea had a huge smile on her face, she had wanted a Wii ever since they came out in 2006.

"How did you afford this, Dad?" Chelsea asked.

"I found a way, don't worry." Her Dad looked upset, but tried to hide it. "And Andy, you're going back to college next year."

"But how-"

"Don't worry about it."

"Thank you, Dad." Andy was filled with excitement and joy, looking forward to finally planning his future once again.

Chelsea's mother, Darla, looked ashamed, but Chelsea couldn't piece together why and shrugged it off. This day was a happy Christmas in the great state of Texas. They sat around the Christmas Tree, drinking coffees and hot chocolates and played Nintendo. It was a joyful, joyful day.

It was the last happy day that Chelsea could remember in her childhood.

2

When the DEA busted into the family's apartment at six in the morning, Chelsea was sound asleep. It had only been a few days after Christmas. The good ole' American Government gave the family a nice few days for the holidays before everything would fall apart again.

When Chelsea and her brother walked out of their bedroom, their father was already in handcuffs and in tears. "It'll be okay, kids. It'll be okay." He said through tears as a DEA agent held his cuffed hands tightly. There were at least five other agents in the apartment living room. They held big, scary rifles to compensate for something, and scared the hell out of an innocent family.

"Why are they doing this, Dad?" Chelsea questioned.

"Because I did whatever I could to help my family." He said in response, and he meant it.

"Shut the hell up! It's time to go." The agent holding him tight exclaimed.

The entire family watched as the DEA agents took him to the vehicle parked in the lot. It was a dirty and dusty gravel parking lot, only made dirty and dustier by the massive Chevy Suburbans that surrounded the place, because they also needed large vehicles to compensate for something. The agents were violently taking Miguel to the vehicle, with no real concern for his wellbeing, not that it was very surprising to Chelsea, even at this age, it was just hard to see it being her own father. Chelsea could 'pass' as white, she looked white, her name was Chelsea, but her father could not. He was a proud Mexican, he looked Mexican, his name was Miguel, he couldn't hide from the world nor should he. But he was a target, especially in the great state of Texas. It was too late for Miguel. He was going to be slapped with a life sentence for slinging drugs. Those drugs? Marijuana. It was marijuana. Miguel lived in the great state of Texas where the drug was illegal. And he was selling it. It didn't make him rich either, but it made him enough money to stay afloat and buy Christmas gifts for his family. It was tough times. He didn't want to do it, but he felt like he was out of options. There were no jobs. Don't have illusions about it, there were no jobs. What choice can one have when the options have evaporated?

He was thrown in the back of one of the Suburbans, as some of the DEA agents went back up to the apartment. The one who took Miguel to the Suburban walked up to Darla. "We have to search the place." He said coldly.

"There is nothing in there." Darla replied.

"Doesn't matter." He said coldly, once again. They would ransack the place, and they would not clean any of it up. They took some 'evidence,' it wasn't evidence, because there was no evidence. There were no drugs in the house. There was no money in the house. There was no evidence of drug dealing in the house. They had nothing at all. They worked on anecdotal evidence from a witness and found evidence on a nearby site where Miguel reported to the drug lord he had to work under. What choice did he have? Let his family starve?

Chelsea would visit her father often. She felt rage. She felt rage against a system that allowed this to happen. She felt rage against a government that allowed this to happen. She felt rage against racists that allowed this to happen. She felt rage at the white supremacy that thrived in this country.

All she felt was rage. She climbed out of poverty, she climbed out of the 2008 recession. She was successful now.

But her father was rotting in prison.

And besides, the DEA took the Nintendo Wii away.