Omigosh omigosh I'm so sorry this is so short, but like I said last time, it's where I feel I should end the chapter. Perhaps I will post next Wednesday as well as next Friday to make it up to you guys. I post every Friday if you guys haven't noticed the pattern.
Thanks to you favoriters, followers, and reviewers, it means a lot.
And thanks to Blackjack97 for your reviews since I can't pm you, this chapter will show how I made that interaction go down...
Eight.
"You said she wants to see me, right? She said so?" Leo asked tentatively. He was back in the waiting room of the police station, though he was sitting to the far left, nowhere near any of the people that had been taken in. The chairs around him were all empty except one. The one to his right was where Lily sat. She was holding his hand. Leo wondered if she could feel how sweaty it was.
He kept shifting in his hard plastic seat, turning and tapping his feet. It was the only way he could keep his anxiety in check; that, and examining the odd inhabitants at the other side of the waiting room from afar.
Lily squeezed his hand.
"That's what she told me on the phone." She said with a tight smile. Something in her voice made Leo scared. Lily didn't seem sure.
"You heard her say just that?"
"Yes, Leo. I asked her if she would want to see you, and she said of course. She said she's looking forward to it."
Leo felt the tight knot in his stomach relax. He released a small sigh.
"What about mama? Did Aunt Rosa say anything about mama? Did she say that she'll let me see her?"
"I guess we can talk about that when she gets here." Lily said lightly as she glanced at her silver watch. It flashed in the light as she moved her slender wrist, and Leo found himself almost overcome with the urge to grab it and take the back off of it. He wanted to see the inside. He wanted to see the gears. He felt his fingers twitch.
"She should be here any minute. She said she would hail a taxi." Lily sighed. Leo tried to smile up at her.
"She doesn't have a car. She says they are disgusting oily machines. I think she's crazy. Cars are great." He said. Lily laughed. Leo found his mood lifted by the sound. Good feelings. They were coming back to him a little at a time.
"You shouldn't call her crazy. She's your aunt." Lily warned, but she seemed to agree with the young boy's views.
They were both smiling slightly when Aunt Rosa entered the station.
The oak double doors were pushed in harshly as the woman walked in. She was of medium height, and she was overweight, but not overly so. Mama used to tell Leo that Aunt Rosa was "plump". She was in her late forties, or at least Leo thought she was. And she hadn't aged well.
The lines on her face were deep, especially her frown lines. Her lips were thin and taut. The leathery skin on her round face had sag to it, and although his mother's was smooth and beautiful, Leo was still reminded of his mama because the color was the same.
As Leo and Lily watched, Aunt Rosa strode quickly toward the front counter, her eyes bright and beady and her large canvas bag swaying. Her floral mustard muumuu flowed slightly as she walked.
She seemed to be talking furiously with the woman sitting behind the desk. As they spoke, Lily stood, leaving Leo on his chair. She began to walk toward Rosa when the woman behind the desk pointed a finger toward Leo. Aunt Rosa's bob of thick black hair shifted as she turned her head to look at him. Leo smiled hopefully, but that small grin slipped off his face as he looked into his Aunt Rosa's eyes. They were red rimmed and furious.
Lily stuck her hand out in greeting as Aunt Rosa walked toward her, but the latina woman wanted nothing to do with her. Rosa strode past the blonde and toward Leo, who stood from his chair and raised his arms slightly, the hope of a pleasant hug and greeting still in the young boy's mind. This was his tía. She was here to comfort him. She was family.
She raised her arms too as she rushed at him, and relieved tears sprouted in his eyes, because Leo could see himself in a few moments, being picked up, being embraced by his Aunt Rosa who had finally realized that she loved him, being told "Todo irá bien, Leo." Everything will be okay.
Instead, Leo found his Aunt Rosa's steely fingers gripping his arms, digging into his skin like claws. Her broad nose was only inches from Leo's and still she screamed, "El Diablo! Why did you do it? Why did you kill my sister? Why did you burn her up? Por qué, tu Diablo? Tu te irá al infierno por esto!" She was shaking him, shaking him so hard he bit his tongue. He could taste the blood in his mouth.
What is she doing? Why is she hurting me? Burn? Why did I burn her up?
And Leo could see the heat blistered hand, the charcoal hand sucked of all moisture, he could see it as they pulled her onto a gurney and placed her in a blue bag, he could see it as the paramedics lifted him onto his own gurney, he could smell her, he could smell her burnt flesh.
Leo started to scream, tears blinding his eyes and snot running from his nose. Someone tried pulling his Aunt Rosa away, maybe it was Lily, maybe it was someone else, Leo couldn't tell.
"¿Dónde está mi mamá?" He sobbed as his aunt's hands were pulled off of him. "Quiero ver a mi madre!" He screamed. Aunt Rosa's eyes seemed to bulge in her head.
"Quiero ver a mi madre? Quiero ver a mi madre?" She shrieked at Leo, and for a moment Aunt Rosa escaped the person holding her back. She shoved her hands into her canvas bag and pulled out a ceramic vase before holding it in front of Leo's leaking eyes.
"Here is your mother, you disgusting demon! Here she is! You burned her so badly she had to be cremated! Here she is in this urn! Your mother!" Rosa yelled, and she was crying too. "I brought her with me so I could show you what you've done you bastard!"
Leo climbed backwards onto his chair, scrambling against the wall in a desperate attempt to escape. His wide eyes were glued to the urn, and his mouth was open in a silent scream.
"You did this!" Aunt Rose screamed, and her free hand raced toward his cheek. Someone grabbed it before it could hit Leo, but the fact that she had tried to slap him shocked him. It shouldn't have, but it did. He found he could barely breathe as he watched his aunt being dragged away kicking and screaming like a child. The urn was taken from her before it could be dropped. Leo watched, horrified, as it was placed on the front desk.
Leo's eyes shot back and forth between his tía and the urn. His brain wouldn't seem to work.
Aunt Rosa was finally dragged out of the station all together by three officers. Their faces were red with effort. Her screams could be heard in the distance until the double oak doors swung closed. The station was suddenly deathly quiet. Leo stared at the people around him, and all of them were staring back. Then Lily, who Leo hadn't even noticed before then, ran toward him and hugged him. She was shaking.
"I'm so sorry Leo! I'm so sorry. I didn't know that would happen. I am so sorry." She said in his ear. Then she picked him up, he thought. He wasn't sure. His eyes were locked on the urn as he was moving. His dark eyes burned as they stared at that ceramic vase shaped object.
Everything seemed to settle within Leo's mind.
His mother was dead.
Lily carried him from the room, and Leo could no longer see his mother's urn. He closed his eyes as he was carried down a hallway.
She's dead.
"I'm so sorry." Lily whispered in his ear. "But don't worry, Leo. Someone will take you in."
Leo opened his eyes. Why would anyone take him in?
He was the devil.
Sorry for any grammar mistakes, especially with the Spanish. I've been in Spanish classes since I was 7 and yet I'm still not fluent.
And if those of you non-spanish speaking guys would like to know what was said in Spanish, here you go.
Aunt Rosa said to Leo, "Why, you devil? You will go to hell for this!"
And later on, Leo was saying, "Where is my mama? I want to see my mother!"
Guys, please please review. It really helps me out, because it gets more people to read, and in all honesty I'm proud of this story, so I want more of ya'll to read it! Gracias, mis amigos!