The phone rings. It’s Dad, who has shrunk to the size of the cell phone screen, far away in a place called Lima, Peru. “Ashley, my baby!” he calls to his daughter, his voice drifting into the Miami Gardens apartment where they lived together for years. The girl is engrossed in the music playing on her tablet, ignoring him. “Ashley, my sweet little girl!” he calls again, but she acts as if she can’t hear him, hitting herself. “Don’t hurt yourself like that!” he pleads, seemingly having lost all authority and become a stranger to his daughter. The mother bursts into tears. The father does, too. They imagine that Ashley, so used to Walter Marcelino Chau taking her to school or cuddling her before bed, no longer recognizes him. If they show her a video of Walter showering her with affection, Ashley turns her face away. If he calls her to see how she is this morning, she turns her back on him. “We don’t know how she’s processing her thoughts now,” the father says. In reality, no one has yet come to terms with the fact that he was deported by the U.S. government despite pleading with the authorities.

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