In Bloom

Heart Shaped Box

  I closed the off white house door and locked it with my key from the outside. "Let's go," I say. I am surprised that my brother isn't sleepy, I guess that's what adrenalin for a 6 year old is. It's still very dark outside, only the full moon and stars gave us light.

  "Are you okay?" I ask. "Uh-huh," he says nodding his head. After walking for about 10 minutes he asks "How long will we be gone?". "Umm..." I hesitate, "Why?". "Cause I don't wanna go back!" he says, then begins to cry. I crouch down in front of him. "We don't have to, I wasn't planning on it anyways," I say. "But, hey, listen.. We're going to have to get far away from here first before the fun starts, okay? Or we could have fun as we travel," I say. "Okay! I wanna have fun!" he giggled.

We keep walking, until we get tired, then we sit down on the side of the road. My brother falls asleep on my shoulder, eventually. A few cars pass by us. One stops in front of us, a woman. She looks only 25 or 30. She has brown skin and freckles. Half of her hair is in a big bun on top of her head, the other hangs down. Her hair is very curly and very long. She reminded me of the black version of Usagi.
She rolled down her window. "Would you kids like a ride? " she asked, her deep brown, almond shaped eyes looked at me. I hesitated and thought for a bit. "Actually? Yes, we would, " I said. I had nothing else to lose at this point. "Get in," she says. I struggle to pick up my brother. I am weak, he is heavy. Nevertheless, I carry him into her back seat and get inside, as well. I turn to shut her car door, then strap both of us in.
As we continue on the road, my brother starts to wake up. "Where are we, mimi?" he asks. "We're on the way to somewhere safe," I say. In 40 minutes or so, we arrive at this lady's house. "I forgot to ask, what is your name?" I ask. "Meziana," she says. "You?" "Mari, and my brother's name is Juli for short." "Short of what?" she asks. "Julio," I say. "Okay, let's go," she says opening her car door. She steps outside, and motions us into her house. Inside, it's not too big or too small. It's cozy and warm. The woman, Meziana, shows us to a hotel room sized bedroom. It holds 2 full sized beds.
"You and Juli can sleep here ," she says to me and leaves the room. I set our suitcases against the wall and tuck Julio into bed. "Buenas noches, make sure you get the best sleep possible," I say. "Buenas noches, Mari," he says.
I go to lay down in my own bed. I stay awake two hours, and once I realize everything is fine, I fell asleep.

In the morning, I wake to the sound of my brother giggling and talking. I walk into the dining room. My brother was dressed in new clothes , his old ones in a plastic grocery bag on the floor. He was talking to the woman. She looked up from the conversation , "those are for you," she says pointing to clothes on the table.

I pick up the clothes. "Thank you," I say. I take a quick shower, get dressed and put my dirty clothes with Juli's. She washes and dries them, and we fold our clothes, then put them in my suitcase.
I begin getting prepared to leave Meziana's house. My brother and her eat something she has cooked , but I don't. She gives me $50.
"Keep this in a safe place," she says sternly. I take the money and place it in my bra, the safest place I can think of.
We began to head outside of her house. The air is fresh, crisp, and cool.
Juli and I must've been walking for about an hour before I noticed the same two people had been following us for 10 minutes the least.
"Don't look now, but do you notice those two people behind us?" I quietly asked Julio. "Sí! Lo siento, Mari. I didn't know it was bad, " he said. "It's okay, brother," I said. We slowed down our walk , and found a wall to lean against. I wanted to see if they'd walk past, or stop in front of us.
As they came closer, I saw that the two people were a little boy and an older guy.
They sped up their walking as we halted. The older guy approached with a serious look, looking at me. He sure was attractive. I stood up tall from my leaning postion.
"What's your name?" he asks smirking. "Mari," I say. "I'm Joel" he chuckles. "How old are you babygirl?" he asks. "I'm 16 , Joel," I say. "I'm 18. You guys wanna catch a ride?" he asks. "You have a car? Then, if you don't mind the question, why did you walk all this way?" I ask grinning. "I think we can both answer that," he says. Juli and I follow Joel (and what I assume to be his little brother)
to his car. I open the door and sit in the front seat, while Joel does the same thing on the opposite side.
"Where do you wanna go?" he asks, abruptly. "I don't know, well, I just need a break. I'm tired , do you know a place we could stay to sleep?" I ask. "Yeah, honey. My house is the perfect spot," Joel replies. He pulls a cigarette out of his back pocket and lights it. The lighter is black, and has red and orange fire designs on it. As the cigarette ignites, the fumes fill the car with the smell of smoke.
I am not used to smoke so close to me, so I cough and try to get it out of my lungs."You don't like that , babygirl?" he asks. "Not used to it, that's all," I say, quickly. "You wanna try?" he offers his cigarette to me. My brother is watching, I decide against it. "Well, alright," Joel shrugs, then takes another hit.
Soon, we arrive at his "house". It is actually an apartment. Not run-down nor beat up. On the inside, its a bit bigger. I set our bags down by the kitchen table, and Joel sends our brothers in another room. I assume that its the boy's bedroom. I quickly change into bed clothes in the bathroom, walk out then put my worn clothes in a plastic bag. Joel leads me into his bedroom, and I lay down in his bed.
His bed is dressed in a plain white down blanket, with several pillows. I crawl under the blanket, and turn around because I can only sleep laying on my left side. After he was in his bathroom, for about thirty minutes, he comes out. He has a towel wrapped around his waist and no shirt on. I quickly shut my eyes , pretending to be asleep.
I hear drawer open, and a towel drop. I assume he's put on shorts and a t-shirt.
  About two minutes later, the bed sinks a bit. He must have just gotten in. I feel the blanket move off of me a little bit, and then back in the same spot it was in before. He shuffles around a bit before saying "I know you're not asleep" and turning opposite me. I couldn't help but giggle.