To be Seen or Heard

Chapter Eight: La Carretera (pt2)

My mother and I both woke up super early in the morning so that we could let Dottie out to do her business without the others noticing. We'd had to do the same thing last night; we'd gone out when it was dark, and only the old man had been on watch.

Thankfully Dottie was a good dog, with her leash and harness on, it was almost like I'd been transported back to the past when I used to walk her around our neighborhood twice a day... she didn't put up a fuss when I hurried her back inside either. Probably because the stench of death still clung onto the highway long after the mass of muertos had passed through yesterday. While Dottie had her cup of dog food, our breakfast was a mixture of dried fruit and granola bars, my mother opened two of the water bottles and split it up evenly for all of us.

Not long after we finished eating, Mr. Dale -the man whose RV broke down yesterday- came by to ask my mother if she could check up on T-Dog's arm. Mamí agreed, but was once more firm in her belief that us kids needed to stay inside where it was relatively safer. Not that any of us had any real protests... except Olivia, who was having Mamí-withdrawal and just wanted to cling to her.

Needless to say, she threw a temper tantrum when our mother left. Not even the puppies helped keep her quiet. Thankfully, the RV was relatively soundproof, and Alexander figured out how to work the small flat-screen TV next to the pullout sofa bed where the car seats were strapped.

In the end, I buckled Olivia into her seat, and my cousin put in one of the 'Dora' movies... which was a lot more effective in shutting her up than all of our empty platitudes combined. The TV effectively entertained Camila as well, even if she did insist that 'Go Diego Go!' was better than 'Dora'. With Eva taking a nap in her playpen, we could finally relax a bit. I spent the next half an hour grooming Dottie -getting all the tangles and twigs out of her fur with her brush- before moving on to the puppies while Isabella watched Alexander fail at 'Mario Cart' on the DS.

"Niños!" my mother called as she climbed up the stairs, Dottie jumped to her feet and greeted Mamí with wet kisses, "The others are going to go search for Sophia now. I'm going to look through the cars to see if I can find some more medicine."

"Can I help?" Alexander asked, facing her completely as he put down the DS.

Her face crumbled in rejection, but she didn't speak for a moment, "It's not safe. You know what happened yesterday."

"I know." he nodded before adding cautiously, "But... I'm kinda dying to get outta this RV. We can help you sort through 'em and bring things inside."

She sighed, "Girls, do you want to come too?"

"Yes!" I jumped up. This could be my chance to prove myself to my mother and show her that she could trust me. Yesterday was a fluke in judgment, and I wasn't going to be repeating it. Now or ever.

Isabella hesitated before looking at Camila and Olivia, "No... I'll stay here and watch the babies. I- um, I don't really wanna go out there."

"Okay, mi amor. Thank you for volunteering for the hard job, Izzie." Mamí smiled at her reassuringly before looking at me and Alexander seriously, "I want you two by my side at all times, do you understand? If I tell you to hide, you hide. If I tell you stop talking, you zip your lips. Got it?"

We bobbed our heads simultaneously before following her out. Dottie whined a bit when she realized that she couldn't come out with me, but Isabella distracted the golden by calling her name and scratching her ears. The sun was scorching hot overhead, and the smell hadn't gotten any better since earlier in the morning. Mr. Dale and T-Dog were the only other two that stayed behind on the highway, even the sheriff's son had gone off with the group to search for Sophia. I felt a bit guilty that none of us were looking for her, but it wasn't like my mother would have let us go anyway, so I tried to put it out of mind.