Tattoo Artist | o. diaz

tres: don't eat the sand

Just a few days after meeting Oscar, Venus ran into him again, but on her day off. She was walking down the street to Jamal's house with Luis on her hip when she unknowingly passed the Santos house. She noticed it was Cesar's house. That day, she was only walking because Luis wouldn't stop throwing a tantrum and walking down the streets always calmed him down; he liked to look at all the birds and cars.

Oscar was sitting on the ledge on his front porch smoking a blunt when he saw his tattoo girl walking with a baby. He called her over, of course, and put out his blunt because he knew better than the smoke around a baby.

"Pluto!"

"I thought her name was Venus?"

Oscar hopped down once she was close enough and nodded his head to the path she was walking down. "Why you walking so fast? And don't you have a car?"

"I'm not and I'm just going my parents' house. Luis was throwing a tantrum again and walking calms him down."

"Sup, lil homie." One of the Santos greeted, grabbing Luis from Venus who easily gave him. "He's heavy as hell, what you be feeding him?"

"Food."

Oscar watched Venus talk with Francisco and his eyes went down her face to her chest. The first thing he noticed was how small the shirt was for her boobs and the second was that her tattoo was peeking out. He couldn't see much, but he saw the bottom of the skull and the flowers beneath it.

"My eyes are up here, puto." The cholos behind laughed at Spooky getting caught and watched him stare at her even more. "I'll be at the park if anyone asks."

"I thought you were going to your parents' house?"

Venus shrugged and walked backwards to the sidewalk. "I changed my mind."

"I'll drive you." Oscar called out.

Venus turned back around and the Santos winced as Luis chewed on her shoulder. "You don't have a carseat."

"Then I'll walk you. Don't let the house get shot up." Oscar told the guys. Venus shot a curious look at the gun part, then started walking ahead of him. Was bring a gang leader to a park a good idea? "If you're gonna walk alone, you should wear more clothes."

"Nah, I'm good."

× × ×

"Luis, ya te dije stop eating la arena." Venus told the child, lifting him up as he started screaming. "Qué es esto? Mira tu cara y pelo." Venus complained. She used her hand to dust the sand off and ran her hand over his head to get the sand out. "You're taking a bath when we get back home."

Luis squirmed out of his mother's arms until she let him back to play on the jungle gym. Venus sighed as she watched him wobble to the slide. Oscar on the other hand was looking around for anyone suspicious, aka Prophets.

"Dude, if you keep staring like that, people are going to think you're trying to kidnap a baby." Venus commented, snapping him out of his thinking. He didn't realize people were staying close to their kids or holding their stuff to their chest.

"Mama!" Luis cried out. He was jumping at the top of the slide and waited for her to be at the bottom of it before he went down with a squeal.

"I used to push Cesar down the slide. I think that's why his head's so big." Oscar commented, watching Luis try to climb back up until another kid told him to move.

"Cesar's head isn't that big. His eyebrows are, though." She shrugged. "So why did you want to come to the park?"

Oscar shrugged, even though she wasn't looking, and said, "No reason." Venus let go of it and cotinued following Luis around as Oscar watched her ass the whole time instead of looking around. "How long you been doing tattoos for?"

"Since I was 14. I had a friend in the Bronx who's family owned a shop and her dad let me practice. When I moved here, I just drew a lot and met people through Santos that let me practice on them." Venus explained to him. "Y tú? You ever want to be anything other than a cholo?"

Oscar chuckled lowly and looked away for a second. "I was going to be a chef." Venus turned back to him and started laughing. "No mames, I was going to go to the magnet school in Pasadena. Full ride scholarship and everything. Open up my own restaurant."

"Why didn't you go?"

Oscar shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "Cesar needed to be taken care of."

The two were silent as Luis played in the sand at their feet. "You can always try again, you know? A lot of people start careers late now and you'd be surprised at how many people would accept you. Anything to get attention and money."

Oscar shook his head. "Nah, it's too late to leave the gang now. Besides, I already make a lot of money." He stated, pointing to all the gold and diamonds he had on his cross. "You think he's ready for a nap now?"

Oscar pointed down and Venus looked to see her son sitting up with a random sand bucket and his head hanging over limply.

"Ay, papito." Venus squatted down and realized her son was already asleep, drool dripping and everything. She swiftly scooped him up into her arms and craddled him as her and Oscar walked away from the park and back to their street.

"Want me to hold him? It's a long walk." Oscar offered. What the fuck are you doing? You haven't held a baby since Cesar was 3. "Plus, you're small and he's like 30 pounds."

Venus looked at him wearily and back down to Luis. "I don't know, he doesn't really warm up to guys that much." She said. "And I'm not that small."

"It's fine, he's asleep anyway. He won't know it's me holding him." Oscar said. He turned his body to face her and picked Luis from her arms. Luis squirmed a little, then fell back to his unconscious state with his mouth slightly open.

"Aren't you supposed to be like, spooky? Like ruthless and trying to murder everyone?"