The Distance Between Us

A couple weeks after returning from Mexico, Mago tells Reyna that she’s planning on looking for an apartment with her friend. Reyna gets worried that Mago is leaving her, but Mago invites Reyna to come live in the new place, too—they can finally be in a place where they’ll be safe and happy, she says. Reyna secretly longs to leave her father’s house—he is never proud of her, and he notices none of the accomplishments he has demanded of her.

Reyna has joined track and field and gotten a boyfriend named Steve. Steve is desperate to sleep with Reyna, but she insists she’s waiting for marriage. As another excuse, she tells Steve that she might be transferring schools soon anyway—even if moving in with Mago means transferring midway through her senior year, she knows she would follow her sister to the ends of the earth.

A week later, Mago tells Reyna that she and her friend have found an apartment—but won’t be able to take Reyna to live with them. Reyna is devastated, and begs to share a room with Mago, but Mago says the apartment is at capacity, and the landlord will be angry if he discovers an extra person living there. Mago points out that Reyna only has two months of school left, and it wouldn’t be right to pull her out of school with so little time left. Reyna begs Mago to stay, but Mago insists she can’t stand it in Papi’s house any longer.

When Mago tells Papi that she’s planning on moving out, he threatens her with the proclamation that he will never speak to her again if she does so; she will be “dead” to him. Mago doesn’t say anything, and Reyna begs her once more to stay.

Every day, Reyna comes home from school, praying that Mago hasn’t already left. Mago comes home every evening, though, and though she and Papi don’t speak for a couple weeks, soon even things between them have gone back to normal. There are even things to celebrate—Reyna is accepted to UC Irvine, and the whole family goes out to dinner.

Two days after the celebration dinner, however, Reyna comes home to an empty bedroom—Mago has left without telling anybody, even Reyna. Reyna starts her chores, crying, and when Papi comes home and she tells him that Mago has gone, he flies into a rage. He forbids Reyna from ever seeing Mago again, and looks at Reyna as if she, too, has disappointed him. He then tells Reyna that she can forget about going to college—he predicts that she is going to be a failure, just like Mago and Carlos, and doesn’t want to “even bother” sending her to school. Reyna begs her father to reconsider, but he shuts himself in his bedroom and will not speak to her anymore.

Reyna graduates from school, but Papi will not allow her to send in her paperwork to UC Irvine. Because she’s underage, there is nothing she can do. Over the summer, both Carlos and Mago announce that they are soon going to have children. Mago calls Reyna and tells her that she wants to see her—she says she’ll pick her up from the house on Sunday. All week, Reyna tries to muster the courage to tell Papi that she’s going out with Mago on the weekend, but can’t bring herself to do it.

Papi’s drinking worsens and worsens over the summer, and Reyna begins selling his beer cans at the recycling center. He argues with Mila nonstop, but never hits her—he takes out his rage physically on Reyna instead, beating her frequently.

That Sunday, Mago comes to pick Reyna up. Reyna calls through her father’s bedroom door that she’s going out with Mago, but Papi forbids her from going. Reyna says that she’s going anyway, and starts heading out of the apartment. When she is almost at Mago’s car, though, Papi comes downstairs and, just as he did in front of Luis years ago, drags her back upstairs by the hair while Mago looks on in horror. Once upstairs, Papi begins beating Reyna, hitting her in the face and drawing blood. She calls for Mago, but her sister does not come for her. Suddenly, the beating stops—Mila has intervened.

Reyna asks Mila why Mago didn’t come to help her. Papi insists that Mago doesn’t care about Reyna and stomps off to his room. Mila helps Reyna up and tries to explain to her that Mago, now pregnant, has to look out for her baby, and can’t put herself in harm’s way—Reyna, devastated, goes to her room and locks herself inside.