"I didn't really know where else to go. I'm sorry. I didn't want to sleep outside because it was raining last night," she said. I sensed a bit of fear in her voice.

"Nah, I'm not mad. Just, well, why are you here?" I questioned. My brain was finally starting to work as I began to wake up. And, I realized that there was no way that I could figure this out if she didn't give me a little information. It is not like I frequently woke up with girls sleeping in my room…unfortunately.

She looked away. I followed her gaze. She was staring out the window and watching the remnants of rain droplets fall off the house. I waited for her to answer. I laid back in my bed. I had no clue what time it was but the sun was out and shining brightly through my window. I closed my eyes.

"Letty," I started, "I've been down with you sayin' absolutely nothing about this other life that you have outside the garage up to this point. I like to think I've respected your privacy. I mean, we've all got our secrets. But, I think when you wake up on my floor, I deserve a little bit of an explanation, you know? I don't care, you can tell me."

She let out a long sigh. "I don't think you really want to know. I think you are probably curious because I just haven't told you anything. But, I don't think that you really want to know when it comes down to it. And, I don't want to put it all on you just to satisfy your curiosity," she said. This was very honest. I appreciated that about Letty. If she was going to bullshit you, she made it obvious. Otherwise, she was very honest. And, typically, very straight forward.

"Listen, I wanna know. I've wanted to know for a while but you're so damned closed off," I said, frustrated.

She chuckled.

"I can handle whatever you're gonna tell me," I added. "I can handle…whatever."

"You can carry the world, huh? Dominic, cut the crap," she said.

"Jesus, Letty, you're like eleven, okay," I said, really annoyed at this point. "I mean, what the hell do you have to hide?"

"So, you really think that you wanna know? You know, after you hear something, that's it. You can't ever not know it," she said. She was way to mature for an eleven-year-old. And, in all honesty, she was probably more mature than I was.

"Yeah," I said, copping an attitude with her. "I really think that I wanna know."

"Okay," she said with a slight laugh, shaking her head. "If you tell anyone what I'm about to tell you then I will kill you. May not now, because I probably couldn't. But, one day, I really will."

"Damn, alright. I won't," I said. I believed her this statement that she had just made. I sat up on my bed. She didn't move from the spot on the floor. She just looked at me.

"I'm supposed to be living with my aunt right now. She is the only one of my mom's relatives that lives in the US. My Mom is from Rosarito, Mexico. My aunt, she is 22. She probably home about 1 day a week, on a good week. Last night, she was home. She has a lot of boyfriends. Sometimes they just ignore me. Most of the time when she is there I leave and go sleep somewhere else. I've had too many of her boyfriends try to get, friendly, I guess you could say. I learned my lesson and now I just leave. But, last night I was already asleep before they got there. I woke up with some man in my room. I tried to leave but he grabbed my hair and burnt my arm with his cigarette. I finally kicked him in the balls and got out. That was when I came here. I just walked around outside for a while but I didn't know where to go and was really tired," she explained.

"Where was your aunt?" I asked. This was concerning. I had no clue that all of this was going on. No wonder she spent so much time at the garage. She essentially lived alone. It was pretty amazing how she had been able to hide that fact. If I had lived alone the house probably would have burned down and I'd die of starvation. But, every time I saw Letty she seemed to have her shit together.

"I dunno. I don't remember seeing her," she said.

"You can always come here," I added. I wasn't sure where she had gone before but it couldn't be too safe for her to just sleep in random places. "Where do you usually go?"

"Sometimes I go and stay with this girl who was friends with my brother. She moved up here from San Diego a couple of years ago. But, it's pretty far to her house and it was raining really hard," she said.

"What happened to your brother, I know you said he died, but…," I asked, still curious about the street racing.
"Miguel. He was really the only person I remember taking care of me. I remember that he took me to my first street race when I was about five. We were living in San Diego then. I guess he just didn't want me to stay at the house with my Mom. He figured that he could protect me if I was with him. I went to street races with him for about three years. He never let me leave his sight. I would go the parties afterwards with him too. They were fun. People were always really nice and there was a lot of music. Sometimes he would have the parties at our house. At one of the parties, I remember that it was getting really late. A lot of people had already left. Miguel was talking to the girl that he was dating at the time. I decided to go to bed. A guy, another racer, named Juan came into my room. He got into my bed and started…well, you know. I started screaming and he just hit me. But, I guess, eventually Miguel heard. He came into my room and saw the guy. He jumped on him and they started fighting. Juan stabbed my brother seven times. He died on the floor of my room. I ran out of the house to the neighbors and they called the police. But, by the time they got there Miguel was dead. My Mom said that she didn't care about going to the funeral. But, I knew I had to go. So, I walked. I don't know how far it was, but it was pretty far. By the time I made it there it was over. I just stayed by his grave crying. I was there for a couple of days, I guess, until some policeman picked me up and took me back home. But, everything was so much worse after Miguel was gone. There wasn't anyone to help me," Letty finished. She started to get chocked up at this point- not enough to cry but enough to make her voice shaky.

I just sat there in silence. I was trying to let all the information she had just give me pour in. This wasn't really a complete picture, but it was pretty heavy stuff. I didn't think I could take much more at the moment. No wonder she had been hesitant to shake my Dad's hand. I'm surprised she wanted to be around guys at all. And, as always, Letty was right. As soon as she told me, I wished she hadn't. I knew that I had to say something. I had sat silent for long enough. But, what response follows something like that?

TBC

---

AJ