~~~
September 2002
"Eddie!" The scream cut through the house. Eddie's blood ran cold. His mothers scream reverberated through the house. His dad had gone away on business two weeks ago. The day after his birthday. Now Eddie Diaz was here, ten years old, and his mother had just gone into labor. He'd been sat in the living room with Sophia watching silly cartoons and trying to keep her occupied whilst his mother made some lunch for them. Eddie raced into the kitchen. "Eddie. It's time, my water's broken. The baby's coming." She panted, gripping the kitchen table.
Eddie didn't know what to do. What do you do when your mom tells you she's about to have a baby and your dad isn't here? He couldn't call his dad. He was off in another state for business. He'd never make it in time. He had to do something.
"You need to be the man of the house now Eddie." The voice of his father rang clear in his ears. That's what he'd said to him. Eddie was the man of the house now. He needed to take responsibility. Eddie turned around and rushed to the garage. He was going to have to take his mom to the hospital. That's what you do when someone is having a baby, right? You take them to the hospital. He'd seen it in the telenovela's he watched with his abuela on a Sunday after church. The lady always says her water's broken, and they drive to the hospital. This was the right thing to do.
The keys to his dad's pick up truck were hung up on the hook by the garage door. Eddie grabbed them and frantically unlocked the door, clambering into the driver's seat. At ten years old Eddie was only four foot nine. He had to sit right on the edge of the seat to reach the pedals, and he was just tall enough to see over the steering wheel. He put the key in the ignition and turned the car on, putting it into reverse the way he'd seen his father do so many times.
Eddie had no idea how to drive a car. He'd sat in the passenger seat next to his dad a few times, and had always watched in intense curiosity. He remembered asking his dad to explain what all the letters on the stick shift meant. His dad had talked him through them all. But here he was, ten years old, and only a basic grasp of how to drive a car. He knew he had to reverse out of the garage. That the accelerator was the right pedal and the brake was the left. Surely it couldn't be that hard? All he had to do was reverse out of the garage and then put the car into drive. He could do this. He could help his mom and drive her to the hospital. His dad was going to be so proud of him.
What followed was an almighty scraping and crashing sound. Eddie had pulled the wheel too far round whilst looking over his shoulder, and had reversed the car right along the side of the garage wall. Tears began to well up in his eyes. From where he was sat he could see the wing mirror hanging off, but he couldn't see the rest of the possible damage that had been done. He was going to be in so much trouble.
"Eddie." Helena shouted again, this time rushing into the garage, holding into the frame of the doorway as another contraction hit. "Eddie, what're you doing?"
"We have to drive to the hospital." Eddie said. Small and afraid he was about to get into trouble. His dad loved this car. It was his prized possession.
"Eddie, call your tia Peppa. She'll drive us to the hospital, okay? Do you remember the number?"
"I know it." Eddie shouted, once again springing into action and sprinting through the house. He could do this. He could help his mother. He didn't have time to stop and think about how much trouble he'd be in about the car.
They arrived at the hospital in one piece. They'd taken Sophia to Peppa's house, where Eddie's abuela was. She was still too young to come to the hospital with them. They tried to make Eddie stay, but he'd insisted on coming with them. He needed to make sure his mother got there okay. He had to stay with her. Helena's contractions were coming on quickly. They didn't have time to argue.
Helena was greeted by a nurse with a wheelchair, and was being whisked off to the maternity ward. Eddie and Peppa were left in the waiting area. Left to wait and find out if Eddie would have a baby brother or sister. Eddie wanted to go with his mother, but the nurse and his tia told him to wait in the waiting area. Eddie didn't like that she'd be in there all on her own. The wait felt like forever. In actuality it had only been two hours, but Eddie was nervous, and time seemed to be trickling by at a snail's pace.
A nurse came through the doors to find Peppa and Eddie. She told them that mother and baby were both doing okay and that Helena had given birth to a baby girl. Eddie had really wanted a baby brother. Helena had to be taken for an emergency cesarean section. The baby had been at an odd angle and she couldn't give birth naturally. There was too big a risk to the baby, and they couldn't shift its position further round. The nurse showed them through to Helena's room, where she was holding Eddie's sister.
"Eddie, this is Adriana." Helena told him. "This is your baby sister."
~~~
Helena and Adriana came home from the hospital five days later. Eddie and Sophia had been staying at their abuela's house whilst she was away. Eddie had been helping his abuela look after Sophia. Isabel kept fussing over him, telling him it wasn't necessary, that it was her job to look after both of them, but Eddie was the man of this house. It was his job now to help look after his little sister. So he helped his abuela, and his abuela just sighed and let him.
All Eddie wanted to do was impress his father. His father had given him this one job, so he was going to take it on and do it well. Isabel worried about her eldest grandchild. She worried that Eddie was taking on too much responsibility for a child so young. He should be outdoors playing with his friends, not worrying about whether his sister had eaten her lunch, or what time she needed to go to bed. That should be his parents job, or her job when they needed the help. It was a lot of pressure to put onto a ten year old boy.
For those five days they were at their abuela's house, Eddie insisted on helping her with everything. If she was making her grandchildren food, Eddie was right there trying to help cook. He got up early and tried to get Sophia ready for school before his abuela could. He was the one telling Sophia it was bedtime and that she needed to brush her teeth. Eddie was trying to keep things under control. Show his abuela that he could help out so that she wouldn't worry when his mother came home from the hospital. Eddie could do this. He could be the responsible older brother.
~~~
Ramon came home from his business trip two weeks after Adriana was born. The first thing he saw wasn't his newborn daughter, but his car. With its missing wing mirror, and the deep scrap traversing the side of it.
"Eddie! Get in here." Ramon called out from the garage on his arrival. How did his dad know it was him? Had his mom told him about the incident with the car? Eddie shuffled towards the garage ready for the verbal beating he was about to receive from his dad. "Care to explain, son?"
"It was an accident, dad, I swear. Mom was having the baby. I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to help." Eddie pleaded. He needed his dad to understand that he didn't mean for this to happen. That he was trying to step up and be the man of the house just like he'd told him to be. Maybe his dad wouldn't be so mad at him if he just saw that he was trying to do as he'd been told.
"And why didn't you call your aunt Peppa, or your abuela?" Ramon's voice was rising.
"I didn't think, dad. I'm sorry. I was just trying to do what you asked me to do. I was trying to be the man of the house."
"Exactly Edmundo. You didn't think. You never think. What made you think you could drive a car anyways? You're ten years old. You probably couldn't even see over the steering wheel. You have a brain in that head of yours, so why don't you ever use it?"
"I'm sorry dad."
"Get out of my sight. I don't want to see you until dinner. You're grounded for a month."
Eddie went to his room and cried that night. Because he was a failure in his father's eyes, because he couldn't play with Brandon on the weekends for a whole month, because at the end of it all he just wanted to make his father proud and take control of a situation. He'd let his father down. He'd asked Eddie to step up and Eddie had failed to do that. So he cried, because that was the only way he knew how to express his emotions.
