Sisters
Cecelia looked at her beautifully silver colored watch she was given as a gift for her birthday, once again and gave away a big sigh. She had been waiting for her little sister for over 30 minutes. Cecelia looked around desperately hoping she would see her sister with a big smile on her face walking to the table outside of a coffee place downtown.
She was the oldest of seven children and her sister, Lela, whom she was waiting for was like a daughter to her. She took another sip from her warm, rich cappuccino which wasn’t as hot anymore because of the cold weather. Growing impatient Cecelia decided to call Lela; she picked up her shiny, leathery black bag from the floor and placed it on her top of her lap. She dug around her bag looking for her BlackBerry. She noticed she had two missed calls from her son Darrell, but none from her sister. Her mind started to think of awful things that could have happened to Lela, she shook her head trying to remove the thoughts from her head, but they didn’t go away.
She took another sip from her cappuccino and decided to call Darrell. She put her phone to her ear and listened to the phone ring repeatedly.
On the 4th ring her son answered, “Hello?”
“Hey, honey why did you call?” she asked him as she heard the rap music playing in the background.
“Huh? Oh yeah, can I go to the mall with Rafael?” he asked even though he knew how much his mom didn’t like it when he hung out with Rafael.
Cecelia paused for a second as she thought of what to say.
“What for honey? What are you guys going to do?” Rafael was a boy in Darrell’s school who was one year older than him, but much more experienced and foolish.
“Uh I don’t know, just walk around I guess. He’s here right now.”
“Rafael is at the house!” Cecelia yelled harshly, making the waiter beside her turn around and look at her.
“Yup.”
“No, honey you can’t go to the mall, just wait for me until I get home.” She ordered in a strict voice.
“Please, mom?” He begged but Darrell actually really didn’t want to go to the mall; he just asked because Rafael wanted to.
“No, honey I’ll be there in like an hour.” She really hoped that she could be there in an hour, she was worried of the things Rafael could make Darrell do.
“Alright, mom. Bye.” He suddenly clicked. With that Cecelia hung up as well and looked down at her phone. Lela still wasn’t there.
Cecelia then spotted her sister with three bags in her hand and a big smile on her face. Lela started waving at Cecelia and dropped one of her bags in the middle of the street; she bent down to pick it up but, as she got up a yellow hummer honked and she turned around and gasped. The driver in the yellow hummer tried to step on the brakes but it was too late, he slowly shut his eyes as the front of the car hit Lela in the head and she collapsed to the ground, blood streaming out of her head. Cecelia let out a horrible scream as Lela fell to the floor. She swiftly got up from her chair and ran towards her sister. The people at the coffee shop and on the streets that had just witnessed what happened stood frozen and watched; Cecelia was the only one running towards her. People stared as the hummer driver slowly stepped out his car with a terrified look on his face. A little girl tugged on her Mom’s hand and asked what was going on.
When Cecelia finally reached her sister she fell to the ground her eyes red with grief, tears rolled down her checks one after another uncontrollably, she picked up her sister from the ground and brought her fingers to her neck to check her pulse. Cecelia waited a second and then she felt her sister’s pulse, she was still alive. Cecelia now drenched in her sister’s blood, looked around franticly and started yelling, “Someone please help! Call the ambulance!” The driver grabbed his cell phone and called the ambulance, he slowly got closer to Cecelia. Cecelia looked up with sadness, her chin trembling as she looked up at the man who had just killed her sister. She recognized that it was the man that was driving in the hummer, the very one that hit her sister. She slowly got up and wiped the tears away from her cheeks but the tears kept flowing out of her eyes, like a leaking sink. The man backed away a few steps; Cecelia’s eyes were still red but this time with rage, but before she said anything the high pitched noise of the ambulance made everyone’s head turn.
The paramedics quickly ran to the scene, they put Lela in the ambulance and Cecelia got in, too. She held her sister’s hand and talked to her, telling her it was going to be alright, trying to believe her own words as she said them. When they finally reached the hospital, Cecelia was stuck in the waiting room, desperate to know what was going to happen. She slowly closed her eyes and tried to relax, suddenly her phone starting vibrating, she dug in her bag for her cell phone and quickly answered it, “Hello?” her voice cracking as she spoke.
“Hello, Cecelia? Cecelia, it’s me Chanita your neighbor. Oh my God you need to come quick… your house is on fire!” Chanita’s voice sounded frantic.
“What? Why is my house on fire? Call 911 Chanita!” Cecelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she thought this must be some kind of nightmare, from which she couldn’t wake up. She closed her eyes then opened them again hoping that everything could disappear and she would be back at the coffee place waiting for Lela. But of course when she opened it she was still in the waiting room covered in blood.
“I already did.” Chanita assured her.
“Okay, I’ll be over there soon.” She said out of breath before hanging up.
Cecelia was shaking; she wasn’t even crying anymore her face was blank and emotionless. She realized she had left her car at the coffee place, so she decided to call her brother, Darius. As she explained everything to him she started to sob, he tried to clam her down, telling her he would go pick her up from the hospital right away.
The car ride to Cecelia’s house was quiet, neither of them said a word. Cecelia silently wept to herself. Darius patted her on the shoulder and assured her, “Everything is going to be okay.”
As they arrived to her house, the firefighters were all over the place trying to turn extinguish the fire. Cecelia started to remember all the valuable things she had in her house, then she remembered Darrell and Rafael were in the house, she quickly got out of the car and went to one of the fire fighters, she started yelling and asking where her son was. One of the firefighters grabbed her and told her to calm down and that he was ok; she spotted him on the street coughing besides Rafael, she ran towards him. Darrell’s face lit up when he saw his mom but he was scared because of what was going to happen to him, since they set the house on fire.
“Ooo honey, are you ok?” Cecelia hugged her son like it was her last time, grateful nothing had happened to him. When she finally released him from her embrace, Darrell looked down at his mom who was covered in blood, and gave her a confused look since that was obviously not from the fire.
“Yeah mom I’m ok, the real question is are you ok?” Cecelia looked at him sympathetically.
“Honey, you know Aunt Lela…. well she’s in the hospital.”
Darius got of the car and went running towards Cecelia and Darrell, tears streaming down his cheek. Darrell had never seen his uncle cry. Darrell dropped his phone to the ground.
“She died.” He tried to choke out.
