Salted Wound

Chapter 1 Anastacia- Aug 22, 2018

Name: Anastacia Camille Flores. Birthday: April 21st, 2001. Grade and High School: Senior at North Shore High. Citizen status: US Citizen. Ethnicity: Hispanic. Address:8622 W Hamilton Dr. Home income: ...

      I back up from the screen and hesitate. I sit back on my plush pillow that's on the edge of my twin size bed. My room is small, packed close with a brown bureau, a closet, a nightstand, and my bed. My bed is backed up to the wall next to the window, and the door is exactly 6 steps from the edge of the bed. The room is dim with only the Christmas lights that are hanging from the ceiling and the ones that are dangling from the curtains turned on. The blinds are closed to block out the sun from entering my room. The fan buzzes from the corner of my room and the sweet voice of Billie Eilish echoes from my mini speaker laying on the bureau.

            I throw my head forward and twist my thick curls into a bun. I have a thin blanket over my naked legs and am wearing a simple black tank-top. My laptop is sitting against my thighs and the sticky note that Ms.Hayes gave me lays on the keyboard.

            Anastacia, I hope you find Wishbone Scholarship helpful... I know you'll get it... let me knows how it goes. :)

Ms. Hayes

            I sigh and look back to my screen. My home income. My mom works full time at Lenny's Corner Bakery and is paid twelve dollars an hour. I work part-time at Benny's and get paid minimum wage. My younger sister, Estrella, works 10 hours a week at the bakery and gets paid minimum wage. I start making the calculations in my head. Total we would make approximately $42,380 a year, and this is before taxes. I mean wouldn't I get more money for low income? I think that's right. I type it in and continue with the questions.

   Did your parents complete college?

    The answer is simple. No.

My parent's love story is long and beautiful, but tragic. At least that's how she's explained it to Julian, my younger brother. My mother, Lluvia Reyes, was born and raised In Chihuahua, Mexico. She lived with her parents, four brothers, and three sisters. They lived in a small complex south of the city where there wasn't much money for food. She had to drop out of school at 14 to help support her siblings and parents. My father, Julian Flores,  had it a bit worse. He was from Juarez and his parents died from confusing issues. He lived with his cousin Jorge most of his life until he met my mother. He stopped going to school after the age of 15.

    They met the same day my Tio Oscar swallowed a twig and he turned five shades of blue. My mother was in the city and was crying for help when my father heard her voice from the doorway of a corner store. He ran to her and gave Oscar CPR, saving his life and in turn, making my mother view him as a hero.

"Nunca pensé que me iba enamorar con alguien. Mi trabajo era a cuidar mis hermanos y traer comida a la mesa. Yo ya era mamá en los ojos de mis padres," I never thought I would fall in love the way I fell for him. My job was always to put food on the table. I was already a mom in my parent's eyes, she would say.

But when she looked into my father's eyes, she believed love was real. My father believed she was the love of his life. One year later, they wanted to get married and move to America. Both because it would give them more opportunities to support themselves and my mother's family back home and because they wanted a better life for me. My mom was 18 and my dad 19, so they were pretty young. Fast forward to nine months later, Anastacia Camille Flores entered the world.

My father tried going back to school when I turned a year old but dropped out when my mom became pregnant with my sister. That's when they both accepted that it was time to put their kids first and take care of both Estrella and me, and things were perfect for them. Yeah, they struggled with finding a job and the everyday struggles of being illegal immigrants, but they never let go of each other, they put up with everything to keep our family stable, and they were happy.