Silent promises // Ezekiel Reyes

ch2

14 years later

Rosaleigh "Leora" morgan sat under the bridge, now twenty-five she had a soft smile on her face as the people that resided there chatted and played around with eachother, the looks on their faces happy and cheerful, not full of fear and sadness when they lost Bobby.

Rosaleigh looked over to the graveyard of the bridge people, to the people of santo padre, they were just bodies and people no one would miss, to Rosaleigh and the bridge people, they were family, elderly, young, teenagers, pets, the graveyard had many souls, no one questioned it.

One year after Bobby's death, Serenity found out after finally leaving prostitution and stripping behind, that she was pregnant, she didn't know if it was her pimp or a random john, but it didn't matter when Bobbi "Omari" Jones was born, he was now thirteen years old, he was cheerful and had his mother's attitude, the bakery was doing well, Rosaleigh stopped by every day.

Oh Rosaleigh, the number of times both Serenity and April had asked her to move in with them, however she refused because to her, beneath the bridge is where she belonged, speaking of April, even though Rosaleigh lived under the bridge if the weather was terrible, or if she was sick, she was practically forced to stay at one of the older women's homes, bathing and eating was never really a problem , either using April's shower or finding a stream near the bridge, food was constantly given to them by either Serenity or Big Benny, a local food vendor, She even had her own special corner in the library, and you would be amazed at all the small children willing to learn sign language.

But she still had problems with some people, being deaf was hard, being half black and half Mexican was another thing, few couldn't tell, but when they do notice it usually brings out the bland racism and snarky comments, even more so when they know she can't hear them.

......

Rosaleigh roamed the streets of santo padre, her little red riding hood book in hand, the cover and some pages were still stained with Bobo's blood, his life was taken when he tried to get her book back, and she would never let his sacrifice for something so pointless be in vain.

Infact on that night, when the then eleven-year-old Rosaleigh killed that redneck rumors had spread, his body was splayed out on the bench, his throat slit with a beer bottle, not that anyone knew, some thought a mugging gone wrong, others thought retaliation from either the Mayans or the Galindo cartel, and in recent years new players, mainly known at the border had been lurking, Los Olvidados, some thought that it was when they were first created, but no one truly knew anything.

However, some knew of the deaf woman under the bridge, it was a mere whisper, a myth, of one called Bloody rose, or Rosa sangrienta, a silent angel who delivers peace and justice, Bloody rose was mostly known only to the bridge people, Serenity, and April, until it spread into santo padre.

Santo Padre's charter was weary throughout the years, but never found any proof of Rosa sangrienta, the Galindo cartel, now run by Miguel Galindo after his father's death, didn't care for rumors, there was no activity from the so called silent angel.

As Rosaleigh walked the streets of Santo Padre, passing by the meat shop she once stole from, Carniceria Reyes, eight years ago there was a shooting, and the wife of the shops owner was dead, their son later went to prison for killing a cop, that's all that Rosaleigh knew from the whispers that came from people's mouth, her lip reading and the feelings of vibrations had improved over the years.

Rosaleigh had felt the vibrations of a bike- no a motorcycle come to a stop, but by the time she turned around the rider was already gone, possibly into the very meat shop.