"Despues de Ella" After Her

      I had forgotten the sound of my mother’s voice when she called me on the phone; I forgot how pretty she looked when the wind blew her hair and her hair away from her face, making her look beautiful.  I forgot that warm feeling that only she could give me when she hugged me. And how her straight black hair would settle on her shoulders and brushed along her face bringing out her bright smile. I forgot how she smelled like when she hugged me.

   

I forgot all the memories of my mother but the only thing I didn’t forget was how much she loves me. When you’re a child you know that you have a mother and that you called them mom or mommy, but you just call them that because that’s what they taught you to say when you need their help with something. But deep inside you really don’t know the meaning of mother until she’s gone. When you’re young, you never really think about living without your mother, but when she leaves, you miss calling her mom, when you begin to grow up; it is then that you realize why you called her mom.



I was excited when my aunt called for my sister Brianna to come and speak with mom at the payphone, until she started to cry overwhelmed with confusion, I was reluctant to speak with her.  I was slowly forgetting her, she asked me if I remembered her and I began to cry because I didn’t know what to say. But inside of me something told me that she was my mother and that I didn’t have to be afraid anymore because she didn’t leave me here alone forever. I try to remember her face, but all I remember is the last hug she gave me before she left. Her face comes out blurry and all I see is her smiling at me while saying “Te quiero”.



I told her that I didn’t like living with my aunt because she didn’t treat us right. I told my mom that in the morning my aunt would give us only half of a bowl of cereal to eat. However, David, my aunt’s favorite grandson, was allowed two bowls of cereal.  “I wonder if my aunt would still love him and trust him knowing that he steals from her and from her husband. And sells her things with out her knowing” I told mom that my aunt Floria would make us take a shower outside and use the bathroom outside. But that was only for my sister, my cousin and I, because Jacob, my brother, would always take a shower inside the house. She told me that she loved me and to behave because we will be reunited in another place sometime soon. A few weeks later and we are still waking up on that hard cold floor.



I would always wake up with a headache and a backache because of that floor. Just one more day with my aunt, I thought to myself and I went to eat break fast. This morning my aunt served us a full bowl of cereal because she said that at 3:00 in the afternoon we were going to go to heathers house and she will help us. It was at this point when I remembered what my mother had told me before we said our goodbyes, but what I didn’t know was that we were about to begin our journey to be reunited with out mother. We started to leave my aunts house it was a four hour drive to heathers house and we arrived at her house at 7:30 my aunt told her that we were the girls that she had been waiting for. After that she took my brother and we didn’t see him again.





Heather was really nice with us, she also had two daughters about the same age as us. I was happy staying with her. She had told her daughters Patricia and phoebe before we came to follow us were ever we went. I thought it was funny because they would never leave us alone but my sister was getting aggravated by them. When we had to go to the bathroom the girls would be right behind us, they would follow us everywhere.When my sister had to go take a shower Patricia would go with her in the bathroom and wait for her until she was finished.



I would always tell phoebe that I had to use the bathroom and that I would feel uncomfortable if she was in there with me. She responded with an attitude and said that she dint care. her mom told her to never leave me alone. I told her that were was I going to go if there was no windows in the bathroom.I got tired of talking to her so I decided to run away from her in the house somehow I lost her and I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom and locked the door. She was kind of fat so she didn’t catch up to me she was knocking the door for me to open it but I didn’t want to. Then after a few minutes I open the door and she started to yell at me like I was her daughter or something. I told her not to yell at me because I was taller than her and I didn’t leave. I told her that if she was going to keep doing that I was going to tell her mom and I was going to punch her. At that moment she got quiet and she went back to the normal routine.



Heather had called us to sit at the table to go eat, and I think the girls were racist because they would always eat on the other side of the table. Heather told us that Alicia was going to pick us up in the morning and that she was going to take care of us for a little while. Heather told us that we had to go to sleep early so we could wake up early.The next morning at 7:30am I was so tired I didn’t want to wake up. But Patricia and phoebe woke us up with their yelling and screaming. Heather called us to go have breakfast I went and heather gave me an egg sandwich. I took a bite of it and I made a sour face and heather started to laugh. I didn’t want to make her feel bad but  I  told her that I didn’t like it.  She laughed and she gave me cereal bowl instead. After we ate we cleaned up and went to the car. 



You’re probably wondering if we even packed our clothes.  We would have if we had clothes to bring. When we left my aunt’s house we didn’t take anything because she didn’t say anything about us staying at heathers house. During the time we were with Heather she was kind enough to let us borrow some of her daughter’s clothes. Heather took us outside and she gave us a hug and said that we were good girls and to take care of each other. And she introduced us to Alicia, heather said that she was the one who was going to take us to the airport.  It was 8:30 and we got in the red car and everything was so quiet  and peaceful we started to leave heathers house.



I looked back and heather was saying goodbye with a smile on her face. And Alicia  told us that if a cop stopped and if they asked us who we were and who was the lady. We had to say that our name was “Patricia and phoebe and that her name was heather and that we were going to the park” I didn’t want to lie but I had to. While Alicia was driving I would see red stop lights for the first time in my life.  I thought that it was the police coming to get us because in my town La Soledad, the only time we saw a red lights was when the police came to take someone away because they had killed someone.  Every time I saw a red light I would hide because I thought that the police would see me. After a while I realize that they were just light and that they did no mean anything.



After that  I started to play with a pink toy when all of a sudden my sister felt something bumped her from under her seat. She told me but I thought she was playing because she liked scarring me. But then I felt it bumped me and I got scared and curious at the same time I went down and look under my seat to see what was bumping us.I saw a guy breathing really hard like if he was going to die because he couldn’t breathe I said hi, and I asked him if he was ok he told me “not for long” I got so scared for him but I couldn’t do anything to help him.  I went back to my seat and I told my Brianna  what I had seen and she got scared and she pulled her legs up because she thought that he was going to pull her down. It was 11:00am and we finally stopped I thought that we had arrived at the airport, but we stopped to let the guys in the trunk out.



When I looked back there were 4 guys coming out of the truck. That’s when I realize why he was moving so much because he wanted to breathe more. After Alicia dropped them off in the middle of nowhere Alicia drove for another 3 hours it was 12:05pm when we arrived at the airport like heather had told us before.  We went to eat at Mc Donald’s And Alicia order us two cheeseburgers that was the first time that we had eaten at a fast food restaurant and the first time that we ate a cheeseburger we didn’t even know what was a cheeseburger.We finished eating and we went back to the airport we entered in the airport and I saw Alicia making a call saying that we were here.



I was amazed because I never knew that airplane existed and never tough that they could fly. After a few minutes of her making that call I saw a tall skinny lady coming toward us I got scared cause I thought she was going to do something to us. Alicia introduced us to Marina ,  Alicia said that she was going to take care of us during the flight and when we landed that marina was going to take us to our mother.  We went in the airplane and marina was holding us from our hands. I had told marina that I wanted to sit on the seat that was next to the window. Brianna got mad because she wanted to sit near the window but she sat next to me instead.



It was 1:15pm when we were in the air Brianna got scared because the airplane would go up and down and we felt our hearts going to our stomach. Brianna taught that the airplane was going to fall but I started laughing and making fun of her.It was 5:30 and we had arrived in California we came out of the airplane and it was so beautiful I had never seen anything like it before. In Mexico all I would see was dirt roads, Mexico City has pretty places but Brianna and I didn’t go out that much to the city. From the airport we went to a hotel because it was getting late and it was a 3 hour drive to where my mother was going to meet us.



The next morning we woke up at 8:00am we got ready and went to eat breakfast marina started to ask us question about how heather and Alicia treated us we told her that they were really nice with us. She said “good”  we finished eating and we got in the car.  it was 9:30 and  marina started to drive to the other side of town to  reunited us with our mother. It was 1:00pm and we went to a parking lot of a store and we waited because our mother couldn’t find us. I thought that my mom didn’t want us anymore and that she was never going to come.After a few minutes a red truck parked near us and marina said to get out of the car because our mom had arrived. I was so happy and my heart started beating really fast I was really exited to see my mom again.



We got out of the car and I saw my mom with a smile on her face. My mother and Marina started talking and my mom said that she gave the money to Marcos. Marina called Marco’s just to make sure that my mom was saying the truth. Marcos said that my mother had sent him the money and that it was ok to let us go with her. Marina hugged us and said that we were good girls and that there was no more traveling from now on.We got in the car with my mom, my mom was so happy that we were with her. and we went to “OUR HOUSE”. The first thing we did when we got there was to take a  long shower. A few days past and my brother Jacob had arrived to the house because  we were separated and he came by himself. Till this day I still don’t know with who he left.



A few months past and we were still living there we were very happy with my brothers. I was going to school there with my sister and I felt like we were going to stay there for ever  but  then a couple of weeks past and my mom told us that we were going to go live with our older brother and his family. I said to my self “here we go again”. This time we landed in New York City we had a lady to take care of us while we were in the airplane. We arrived at the airport and my older brother Juan was waiting for us we went with him and he was really nice off course when your little everyone seems nice to you. during the ride to New Haven I fell asleep because I was tired . Mom was waiting for us at the house I felt shy with Juan because I  had never seen  him before.



A few weeks later my mom and my older brother were talking about us going to school I did not want to go to school because i was afraid of not knowing what to say. My brother and my mom took me to Clinton Ave School I thought  that we were just going to see if they would accept me in the school but then I found out that that I was going to stay there and that was going to be my fist day of school. I wanted to cry when they told me that, but I was not going to let the other kids make fun of me. The classes were very hard for me because I didn’t know English but I had to learn it because there was no other options for and immigrant like me. Who would have thought that I would be here  turning 17 years olds and talking about how I came to the United states when eleven years ago I couldn’t eve dream about it.