Heat was something we really never thought about, being raised in Arizona we took the scorching days as they came. On this particular night it had to be a little over a hundred degrees my sister and I didn't take into consideration how hot it was it was just another day for getting wet with the water hose and waiting patiently for the ice cream truck to come around the corner.
Mom had been talking to my older brother who was the handi man of the house about the washing machine and how it wasn't spinning the clothes as good as it should. Pete said I'm going to get to it mom but couldn't get the part for a couple of days.
Mom as impatient as she was wanted to bag everything up and load it up into the station wagon to get it done sooner than later.
Frances (pancha) was a year older than me and bossy she starts ordering me around telling me to take this and that to the station wagon huffing and puffing trying to get the bottles of detergent into the wagon wasn't easy because we were a family of eleven six boys and five girls so laundry was a a lot of plastic bags full of clothes.
On the way to the laundry mat mom said ok girls I'm going to get you some ice cream but we had to promise to sit down and not be running around she was going to be busy and didn't have time to be running around after us of course we agreed that we would sit still so she could sort and load the washers.
Mom drove up to the front of the laundry mat and kind of wondered why it looked dark inside and empty she shrugged it off as if it was a good thing cause now she could load as many washers as she needed to.
She said out loud I'm going to park in the back cause it would be easier for her to unload the bags of clothes and not have to find something to prop the door open as she was in and out of the laundry mat.
My sister and I by this time had melted ice cream dripping down our arms along with sticky fingers, pancha said c'mon let's go to the restroom and get washed up mom looked over at us with that look of you two promised to sit still kind of look. My sister takes off running all the way around the rows of washers and there I go running behind her with my sticky hands threatening her that I was going to put my hands in her hair. As she turns the corner full speed she slams the bathroom door open and stops dead in her tracks I didn't have time to stop and bumped her further in to the room she had just opened pushing her further in she had this look of total fear in her, I never seen her look so scared and frozen from disbelief of what she was looking at I look into the room and it has all this red stuff dripping off the walls the floor was covered in this red, wet, thick foul smelling mess with the temperature being as hot as it was didn't make the odor of this stuff any better. Hair strands were stuck in it and chunks of what looked like human skin pieces floating around in this goop.
I could faintly hear mom calling for us
"girls" pancha lupe don't be playing
around back there come over here where
I can see you, we were stuck with our mouths open and eyes wide in disbelief of
what we were seeing, girls mom's voice
was getting closer and louder all of a
sudden I felt this warm hand on my
shoulder pulling me back away from this
room covered in blood.
Mom reached around me and with her
other hand reached for my sister's arm and pulled us both out of the room.
She held both our hands and said run run girls don't look back just run.
We didn't get but about five steps away when all of a sudden this big tall dark man stood directly in front of us my mom so much smaller looked up at him grabbed both my sister and I and shoved us behind her, her eyes were starting to fill with water overwhelmed with fear she very calmly opened her mouth and gently whispered in a soft gental voice and said please don't hurt my girls.
Out of no where this loud bang went off echoing through the emptyness of the laundry mat it was so loud that it hurt my ears.
All I could feel was the warmth of my mom's hands hugging both me and my
sister clutching us closer to her as the tall dark man fell to the ground. we found out later that this man had taken a little girl that lived but a couple blocks from us and was last seen near the shopping center where the laundry mat was that mom had taken us to that warm evening.
Police had been looking for this man or little girl and spotted him walking into the laundry facility where my mom had taken us to do our laundry that evening.
