The Wall

"Quit your bitching!" I snap at Consuela and shove her aside with my hip. I stick my trowel in the bucket of cement and slap some more on to the bricks I'm building around us.

"I iz don't want to do dis, Mia!!" Consuela pleads.

"Shut up! I'm doing what is best for both of us, trust me." I say and continue to build the wall around us.

"But Mia, I iz don't want to live like dis!" she cries. I continue to ignore her. Consuela doesn't know what she's talking about. She's simple, and naive -- and gets taken advantage of far too easily. This will protect her too.

I make sure to firmly press each brick into the cement. I want it to be secure.

"Mia, dis iz not good!" Consuela whines. "How iz der people dey iz gonna visit wit us if we is behind dis wall?" she says to me.

"Look," I tell her as I wipe the sweat away from my brow "things are getting a little complicated -- and for the time being, we need to do this. We need to stay safe. Don't you want to be safe?" I say to her and wait to see how she responds.

She looks up at me with her tired, sad, brown eyes. "Mia," she says "dis iz not good. Dis iz not good."

"It's only for a little while," I tell her and turn back to building the wall. The bricks are at my shoulders now so it's getting a little difficult to maneuver. I'm going to try and dome the top -- like how they build igloos. I've made sure to calculate the right size of bricks for this, so I really really hope it works.

"Mia....it iz too hot in here," Consuela says.

"Look," I start in on her "I know it's hot...and uncomfortable...and well, dark and confining. I get that -- but you have to understand that I'm only trying to do what I think is best for us. I'm only trying to keep us safe, ok? I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. And for now...for now this makes sense."

I look at her, but she turns her back towards me. She's obviously in a snit.

"It's not so bad..." I tell her as I start to build the dome above my head. "It's kinda cool actually, our own little place -- just for us. No one to bother us. No one knows about it but me and you. And think of all the fun we could have just you and me...here, talking -- getting to know each other a little more. Like...tell me about where you grew up!" I say to her with a big smile.

"I heeeet you, MIA!" she yells at me before slumping to the floor.

Time for bribery.

"I have an iPod for you....filled with lots and lots of Telenovellas!" I say as I apply the last of the bricks to the top of the dome.

There! All done. Nice and safe.

I turn back to Consuela who refuses to make eye contact with me. I crouch down to her level and pull the iPod out of my pocket and show her all the shows that I have on it. But she looks away.

"Consuela?" I say after a moment. I know she's angry --but I really am doing what is best for both of us.

"Consuela!" I say again, but she refuses to look at me.

I don't understand why she is acting like this. She knows how hard it is for me when I'm hurt; or things get difficult. I thought she would be proud of me for doing something good for us.

"Consuela!" I yell, "LOOK AT ME!"

She turns her head slowly, and purses her lips while raising one eyebrow.

"Consuela, it's nice in here! It's clean, and safe, and kinda cool. A little secret hideout. Why don't you like it? Nothing bad could ever possibly happen to you in here. Trust me!" I say with an even bigger smile...hoping that will bring her around.

"Mia," Consuela begins slowly, "I iz can't breeze!" she snaps at me.

"Oh!" I say, and look around our nice little wall. It seems I forgot to put in air holes...but, if I leave holes then something could get in! Something could hurt us! But...if I don't put some holes in it, we will suffocate.

I guess I hadn't really thought the whole 'wall' idea through completely.

So...where I can find a few bricks that are attached to cement that is still wet; I begin to push them away and create air holes for the both of us. Consuela crawls over to one of them and looks out to see what is going on with the rest of the world. But I'm staying where I am for now...I can breathe...and to be honest, I'm perfectly happy.

So what if it's a little boring, and maybe dark? It's safe. And for now...I want to stay here. I worked really hard to build this thing; and I think I should be able to enjoy it.

"Hey!" I yell at Consuela who is starting to push more bricks through while I've been lost in thought. "Don't do that!" I say and crawl over to her to try and wrestle her fat little fingers away from the bricks.

"Stop it!" I say to her as we both use all our strength to get what we want; her to push the brick through and create more holes in the wall -- and me, to stop her.

"What are you doing!?!?" I yell at her. I can't believe she is betraying me like this -- especially after I worked so hard to build this thing for us.

"Mia, dis iz NOT GOOD!" she yells at me and we continue to wrestle. She eventually over powers me and pushes the brick through. Then another. Then another.

And I sit there and cry.

She's destroying my beautiful wall that I built -- just for us. And now, I have no way to protect myself.