~!~ cherry chan ~!~ (seresa) wrote in remains_freenet, @ 2016-09-14 23:40:00 |
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[The camera flickers on in the Scherbatskys' new house, seated across from each other. Cherry has the camera in her hands at chest level. She takes a deep breath, exhaling out the friendly familiarity they have with each other and inhaling what she hopes will pass for professionalism. And then, without preamble, she launches into the six words that Nate always used to begin.] Can you tell me your name? Marina Scherbatskaya. [Though Marina feels a sense of silliness considering she’s done this one before already.] [CUT TO: MARCH 2019. Marina from a few months ago, an unseen man's voice intermingling with her own.] Can you tell me your name? [CUT TO: PRESENT DAY. Cherry smiles encouragingly behind the camera; she loves love.] Why the name change? [Marina’s own smile tugs at the corner of her mouth as she responds:] I got married. And was that something you'd expected earlier this year, when you did the first take of this interview? [Marina shakes her head.] No, Vic just sort of sprung it on me. It was the night of his birthday party and we were getting ready for bed and he asked me. [With her familiarity with Cherry, she opened up more than she normally would, continuing:] I think he was worried. The Officers hadn’t been out of La Quinta for very long and he wanted to make sure if anything happened to him again, I would be protected. Everyone knew I was with him, but we hadn’t made it official yet, you know? But he wanted to because status and titles are important at the Dog Park. What kind of protection do you have now that you wouldn't have, if you hadn't gotten married? It’s more of a respect thing, I guess. [Marina shrugs.] But if anything were to happen to Vic, I know they’ll always take care of me. Being his Old Lady means I always have a place here. [It's a little easier for Cherry to feel comfortable interviewing Marina than she'd initially thought it would be, but it's still a struggle to make sure the eventual viewer would get the full picture. She can't just skip over things she knows.] At the Greenbelt, you mean. How long have you lived there? Since August, so about a year. [CUT TO: MARCH 2019. Nate's voice again.] Where were you before you arrived in Austin? Did you travel here for a particular purpose or was it kismet? [CUT TO: PRESENT DAY, the camera trained on Marina in her new, expansive house -- a stark contrast to those earlier bits of footage. Cherry's voice breaks the silence.] It's funny how things change so quickly, huh? Three months and now we know so much more than we did before. [She pauses, mulling over her thoughts, before:] Can you explain more about what San Antonio was like when you and Los Nahuales first arrived? We came from Mexico, where it was completely chaotic, so in comparison it was better. The shelters weren’t as big and the population was smaller than here. Emmanuel got his hands on prax and after that the city really went to the gutter. He -- we -- did that. [CUT TO: MARCH 2019. Marina’s lips purse together on-screen. ] Emmanuel was the leader for almost the entire time I was with Los Nahuales. He wasn’t when he first found me, but within the next year or so he took control. [CUT TO: PRESENT DAY. Cherry watches Marina's face carefully, knowing this is a sticking point for the woman. It hadn't been a secret around the Dog Park that Marina had nearly left because of the revelation that the Hellhounds were dealing; frankly, it's never been something that had sat well with Cherry, either.] Did you know where he'd found the Prax? No. He would go off sometimes. Do his own thing. That day he’d gone off on his own and I assumed it was just him doing that, but then he came back with a truck with crates full of the shit. Obviously he stole it and looking back, he probably had been planning it for a while. I think he deliberately didn’t tell me about any of it because he knew how I felt about drugs. [CUT TO: MARCH 2019. Marina frowns, a deep line settling between her brows.] I hate drugs. Someone who was like a brother to me, he was an addict. Before the zombies and the Prax even existed. I saw how it fucked him up. I wouldn’t do that to myself. [Marina’s frown deepens.] I never signed up to be a drug dealer and I fucking hated it. [CUT TO: PRESENT DAY. Cherry knows this can be difficult, talking about your past for all the world to see, and the willingness in which Marina's doing so only serves to increase the respect she has for her.] Were you still with Los Nahuales when they came to Austin? As a member of the cartel, I mean. Yes. For a few days. A small group of us came to check out Austin to see if it would be a good place for us to move. I made some comment about how he would ruin this city too and that’s when he decided he’d had enough of me. [Marina looked away and down to her hands] After being with him for so long, he just threw me away. [The next question is asked a little slower, a bit more cautiously than her previous one -- intentionally open-ended despite the fact that she knows the story.] What happened? He was the kind of person who didn’t like to be questioned and I did just that. He’s also not the kind of person you want to anger. I’d seen him kill for less. I guess I should be thankful that he only beat the shit out of me before leaving me for dead. Instead of assuming he knew best, you mean? Yeah. He always thought he knew best. I thought he did for a long time, too. [Cherry frowns behind the lens, trying to keep the camera as still as possible.] Where did he leave you, and what happened then? [Marina continued to twist her fingers together, ignoring the camera.] He left me out in the city. I managed to climb into a tree so the shufflers couldn’t reach me. After a day or so I heard a motorcycle coming. It was the first person I’d seen and wasn’t sure when another person would wander by so I kinda threw myself out of the tree so they’d see me. It was a guy named Rodeo -- the man Austin knew as the Dog King. He brought be back to the Dog Park and I’ve been here ever since. What kind of man did you see in Rodeo? [This is dangerous territory, still; the man has been long gone for months, by now, but his spectre still looms over the city.] Compared to Emmanuel, I mean. [Marina gives a humorless laugh.] They ended up being pretty similar, honestly. They both found me when I was in a bad place and gave me safety and a chance to have a life again. Things were probably more fucked up with Emmanuel but I didn’t want to see it until it was too late. I thought Rodeo was better but when I found out he was responsible for dealing prax in Austin I almost left the Dog Park. I’d already gone through that shit. [She pauses, glancing past the camera to Cherry.] Emmanuel throwing me away hurt a lot. It made sense because I’d been with him for so long. But I was surprised how … betrayed I felt when Rodeo skipped town. [She shrugs.] [Cherry wants to say more, to speak to Marina without the camera between them in her hands. She's sure no one watching, unless they're Greenbelt like they are -- like she was -- will really understand. But that isn't what they're doing here. With a bit of difficulty she pulls herself back into the interview, hoping the brief eye contact she held with Marina outside the camera's view expressed what she wanted.] From your perspective, can you explain what Rodeo meant to you? To the Dog Park? And do you think we -- you're better without him now, or worse? I can’t say what he would have done or where he would have taken the club if he’d stayed, but the way I see it, we’re better off without him if he could abandon everyone like that. I know Sarge is his oldest friend and Addie is his sister, but we were his fucking family too. [Takes a breath, pausing a moment to calm herself down before continuing.] But my life is better because of him. He brought me to the Dog Park where I met my husband and my family. All that other shit is just details now. [Cherry nods to herself, getting the hint that she ought to change the subject quick. She's not here to pry at anything that Marina doesn't want to reveal. She shifts it accordingly, just a bit.] Your home is here, isn't it? More so than anywhere else? San Antonio… Yeah, I’d guess so. I’ll always consider myself a New Yorker but I haven’t lived there since I was a kid and my family… They weren’t really a family. Not like I’ve got now. [It's dangerous territory, Cherry knows -- she isn't even aware of Marina's past outside of this interview, yet, but she prods a bit more for the sake of the narrative.] What makes you say that? [Marina gives a bit of a shrug, not seeing the point in holding back anymore now that they’ve come this far.] My father was an abusive asshole. We were poor and he was a drunk and could never hold down a job. Somehow hitting me and my mother was the way he could feel better about that. Eventually I got fed up and hit him back and after that I didn’t see the point in sticking around anymore so I left home. That’s when I was 15. [CUT TO: MARCH 2019. Marina's words from the present overlap with the recent past.] I was 15 when Emmanuel found me and he kept me close. To protect me, I guess. [She lets out a slow exhale, pushing away thoughts of how things had changed so much towards the end.] had been living on the streets for a few months. He saw me and offered to take me somewhere safe. I was foolish and desperate enough to go with him. I knew that we sold guns and that it was obviously illegal, but it took me a little while to fully understand the size of it all. Once Emmanuel took charge of Los Nahuales he started to include me more in the business. Something about having a teenage girl around threw our clients off. It made them underestimate what we could do. [CUT TO: PRESENT DAY. Cherry's getting to the bottom of Marina's story, finally: a dysfunctional home and a young woman who decided to get out when she could, falling in where she could once she'd escaped. She speaks carefully:] Do you regret going with him or getting involved in the gun trade? Becoming a part of Los Nahuales? Nah. I mean, it sounds bad when I say it but being involved in gun trading as a teenager was a hell of a lot better than sticking around with my parents and letting my father continue to hurt me and my mom. Plus we were poor and never had enough money for food or heating or anything. At least when I joined the Cartel I got taken care of. And as sappy and fucking cheesy as it sounds, if I’d never got mixed up with Emmanuel I never would have wound up here and now I have a husband and a family that loves me and has my back. So… [Marina trails off and shrugs] I think my life went the way it was supposed to. It sounds like you've made your peace with the things you've done. [Cherry pauses, questioning her instincts and whether to broach this subject, before she continues.] Do you agree with the amnesty that has been granted to you here in Austin? If it wasn't you who'd done those things, and you were hearing about someone else in this kind of situation, would you agree to absolve them of what they'd done? [Marina is quiet for a moment as she considers Cherry’s question.] I’m glad it happened but it probably wasn’t deserved. The way people talk about the Hellhounds in this town, about the stuff they’d done before I showed up, well. I think most people would have been glad to see everyone behind bars. But considering I came from the background that I did, who am I to judge other people’s pasts? Usually people like us don’t get second chances, so I just hope no one fucks it up. [Cherry can't help but smile behind the camera.] So what are you doing with your second chance? You're an official member of the MC, now. Right? Yeah, I just got initiated. Weirdest fucking ceremony ever. Everyone was half-naked and swinging me around a fire. [Marina laughs at the memory.] With all the bullshit going on with the rogues, some officer positions opened up so they made me Tail Gunner. [The mental image is enough for Cherry to drop her professional persona and laugh, reverting into her previous role as hound whore for just a moment.] Oh, my God. I can only imagine. [She composes herself then, with difficulty, and adds:] What made you decide to patch? You have the respect of your title as Old Lady already, right? Mostly because Vic asked me to. Obviously as his Old Lady he tells me stuff but it’s nice to be a part of the inner circle on my own merits now. Must be a nice change. Besides driving around town and causing trouble, what else are you up to these days? I never got to finish school before so… I’m going back to get my GED. Everyone in there is going to be younger than me… Vic’s son Sasha is going to be in the same class as me, which is fucking weird, but it’s another one of those second chances I don’t want to fuck up. Is it important to you to finish, or is it just something you have to do? A bit of both. It seems like a normal thing to do and after the life I’ve had, I could use a bit more of that. [Cherry smiles; they all could, everyone in Austin, but Marina especially. She's glad to see the woman looking more content.] You've had a pretty crazy year. Left for dead only to find a new family, your husband and two boys. Even if one of them's older than you. [Marina laughs and nods her head.] It’s not something I ever would have planned for myself but now that I’ve got it, I can’t imagine my life any other way. I guess it really was meant to be. [Cherry pauses, debating internally, before deciding to just go with her gut:] If you had to say one more thing to the man who thought Austin would be your end, only for it to be your beginning, what would it be? I’d tell him that I used to think my happiness depended on him but since he’s been out of my life, I’ve never been happier. I’d tell him that I don’t need him anymore. [pauses a moment before a chuckle escapes.] You know I killed him, right? Wait. What? |