Savanah Garcia
She thought she was a Garcia
She was only just 9 years old when everyone forgot about her.
She's been bullied, gone through a heartache, been kidnaped, has a best friend dealing with cancer, her family has turn their backs on her, wh...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
| Savannah Rodriguez |
Climbing back into my brothers truck, I slumped down into the chair, feeling exhaustion reek throughout my entire body, as I was tired from keeping my walls up so high around my father. The affection my brothers were showing made me want to open my arms but at the same time, push them as far away as possible, but I couldn't decide. "What do you want for dinner?" my brother was trying to keep the conversation light, but I was too tired to even care.
"I don't care" he just sighed in response, as the walls were back up, and they would not be coming down for the rest of the night. Today had been a long day, and I was so ready to just climb back into bed. But rest would never come for people like me, that lived in the family that I did. For someone like me, to be relaxing like this, is hard, because whenever I am home, I am always on high alert, and occasionally, I have to be on high alert at school, and when your not, things happen.
Things like cars following your exact move, seem to happen on the regular. Staring through the rear vision mirror, I could see that there was a flint of metal, flashing in the light, as Ben changed lanes, so did the car behind us. "Does here work?" I could see that Ben knew there was a car following us, and I had known from the training that we used to go through for these situations, that to stop, was one of the worst things someone could do.
Ben was waiting for an answer to the drive-thru up ahead, but I shook my head. "No, we can't stop now" my voice was shaky, letting Ben know that I knew we weren't alone. We had people at home, and people behind us. We had a decision to make. "Grab the gun under your seat" the familiar feeling of the metal that I had just seen in the mirror, was now in my hand, as I reached around underneath me.
I rested it at my feet, making sure that the safety was off, and I tried my hardest to not act like we knew they were following us. I made it look as though Ben and I were just having a normal conversation, and to a certain point, we were. We were talking about dinner, the same dinner that was now ruined because someone decided to follow us. "We can't go anywhere near home" I murmured, feeling immediate guilt sink into the pit of my stomach, at the fact that we would be lucky to make it out of this situation alive.
Another car appeared on our other side, as the person in the passenger seat was trying to signal something to us. He was signaling for us to pull in front of him, but to me, that felt like a bad idea. That would allow for the car to ram into our side, and have a perfect view of the two of us in the front seat. We would be in clear view of the gun, instead of being able to be missed. Ben would be the first person in the firing line, if I did what they asked.
I shook my head at the person, before they were holding up a phone, causing me to have to squint to read some words. I wasn't even sure if I should be agreeing with these people, and doing what they told us, because I didn't trust them. "What are they saying?" Ben questioned, taking a quick look, as he was just driving along the same road, the same one that we had been on since we had left the hospital.
The fact was, that if we had left an earlier or later, we may never have been in this situation, or this situation could have never occured if we never left the house. It was funny, thinking just how little time could affect an entire situation. "I can't really see it, but they want us to go in front of them, and then pull over to the lane on the far side" I read it out to Ben, who did just that, right after I had spoken.
There was enough of a gap, but we must have been close. I could tell that Ben was nervous, and his driving was starting to become a little alarming. "Just slow down a little, Ben" was all I whispered, as I gripped the seatbelt, as we changed lanes for a second time. He nodded, indicating that he had heard me. It was up to him now, to look for what the people were telling him, as I would have to look around him to understand what they wanted.
The car that had once been following us, had now pulled in front of us, slowing right down. I watched in horror, as the person in front of us, reached around, flashing the metal in the light again, as it was aimed between Ben and I. I slid down in my seat, but not enough that the gun would be out of my sight. My worst fear, was coming to light, right here and now.
"Sav, I was just want to say, I love you. I never hated you" and right as those words left my brothers mouth, the gun went off, and I was unsure of what happened next, but I heard glass smash, and I braced myself for the impact, as we were suddenly spinning. I held onto the seatbelt the to the best of my ability, but with a car spinning, it was hard to tell what you could directly see and feel.
I tucked my legs up to my chest as fast as possible, as I flicked my eyes to my brother, to see that he was passed out, right as the final tumble came. I heard the car groan, as my vision started to go blurry, and I felt myself become dizzy, as my head fell forward slightly, and I tried my hardest to keep it up, but everything was getting hard, as I felt my grip, slowly let go of the seatbelt, that may or may not have just saved my brother and I from losing our lives altogether.
---
For a second, I felt something burning at my legs, as the heat was making my body sweat, and I was twisting and turning, trying to get away from the pain that was in my legs and my arms, but nothing was working. I couldn't even open my eyes to check on my brother, and that just made me panic even further. I had no idea what was going on around me, or if we had made it home.
Panic was taking over my body, as everything felt like it had stopped, and I was just sitting there, watching everything, but there was nothing to watch, as my eyes were pressed shut. I couldn't remember whether I had imagined that my brother had told me that he loved me and that he had never hated me in the first place.
I couldn't tell whether the people that had told us to move away from the car that had followed us was real or not. I wasn't even sure if that entire day was real, but what I did know, was that something was burning, and I could smell it. There was some faint shouting, as I then felt my body being lifted, right as I was about to fall back asleep. I was sure that this was just all a dream, and that I was just imagining all of this.
"Your alright, I have you hermana menor" and the voice sounded so familiar, but I was sure that I was just in a dream, reliving everything that had happened in my life, because I was sure that I had seen myself in my own dream, tumbling down a hill, right as a gun had been pointed between my brother and I, as we were coming back from visiting our brother in hospital, where I had had a conversation with some man, to get away from my father, that pretended like he was a real father to everyone but me.
(translation: little sister)
---
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
