Carlos is five years old when Mamá and Papa interrupt his favoritest movie ever. He shrieks at this travesty as only a five-year-old can.
"Mijo, you've watched Toy Story eight times in the last week. The video is wearing out."
"But ish the best part! RC ish rescuing Buzz and Woody!" he lisps indignantly, not quite the master of his Th or Ts yet.
Mamá pushes something on the VCR, and Buzz and Woody and RC all freeze mid-rocket launch. Clearly his mother is magic.
"There, see? RC and Buzz and Woody will be just fine for a few minutes; your papá and I have something to tell you."
Still in awe of Mamá's powers, he shuffles over meekly so she can sit beside him. Papá sits on his other side, his arm going across the back of the couch, Carlos sitting snuggly between them. They're both smiling really big and happy, like it's Christmas or something.
"Mi corazón, you're going to be a big brother!"
He just looks at her, not really understanding. Mamá takes his hand and places it against her tummy.
"Mamás have this magic power," she starts to tell him.
Confused, he turns back to the TV where Buzz and Woody and RC are still frozen.
She laughs, "Not like that, mijo. What I mean is that Mamás are where babies come from. Just like I made you on March 15th-"
"Dat's my birthday!" he says, interrupting her.
She laughs again. "Yes, corazón. That's your birthday. Five years ago, with a little help from your Papá," she winks at her husband and Papá just grins at her, a funny half proud, half 'I Just Got The Last Brownie' kind of look on his face, "we made you! And now, Papá and I are making new baby, and when he or she is ready, you will be a big brother."
He considers her words gravely. He's not sure he knows how to be a big brother.
"Will ish be hard?" he asks.
Mamá's face becomes more serious and her big smile fades a bit, but it's still there around her eyes, so he knows he hasn't made her sad by asking. "Yes, baby, it might be a bit hard. Being a Big Brother is a very important job, just as important as being a Mamá or a Papá."
"You'll have to look out for your new brother or sister always," Papà adds. "And Mamá and I are going to need your help taking care of them sometimes. But in return, you will get a new best friend who will love you always."
"But you and Mamá already love me always. Will you stop?" Carlos asks, voice small and scared.
"Oh no, corazón… we will always love you!" Mamá tells him, pulling him into her lap. "We will love you so much that you will begin to be annoyed by it, just you wait."
Carlos looked at her, highly skeptical. She laughs and kisses him all over his face until he giggles and squirms. "No, honey. Papá and I will never ever stop loving you, but with the new baby we will be extra busy and we may not have as much time to watch tv or play together. But once your new brother or sister is old enough, you will always have someone there to play with or watch tv with when Mamá and Papá are busy."
"They will sometimes annoy you," Papá says, glaring slightly at the picture of him and Aunt Dee Dee on the wall, only to smile and shake his head slightly. "Siblings always do. But treat them with the same love and kindness and caring as you treat your mamá… well, you will never ever be lonely again. Does that sound like a fair trade?"
Carlos thinks about it really hard, face squinching. He would miss having Mamá and Papá all to himself, but it would be nice to have someone to play Power Rangers with, and make pillow forts. "Yes. I dink so." His face unsquinches and he looks around curiously, ready to prove the superiority of the White Ranger. "So were are day?"
Mamá just laughs again, so loud and bright that Carlos only pouts a little when she tells him it would be a whole six months yet before his baby brother or sister would be ready to leave Mamá's belly, but he completely forgives her when she makes magic again and Buzz and RC flash back into motion on the TV.
Later, after the movie is over, Papá even takes them out for ice cream in the Old Truck! Old Truck doesn't look much like the trucks he sees everyone else driving around – it's wheels are a little bigger and bumpier and it's edges are a lot more round, almost like a bunch of squished square bubbles put together, but much cooler looking. Carlos doesn't know what kind it is, only that it's his second favorite vehicle ever (first place goes to his very own RC Race car - just like the one from Toy Story! - that Abuela gave him for his birthday a few weeks ago), and he loves sitting on the fender when it's warm enough, handing Papá tools as he tinkers with the engine.
They never take Old Truck out in it in the wintertime, so getting to ride in it for his Almost Birthday is almost as good as the ice cream!
It's one week before his very first day of preschool, and Carlos is sitting at the kitchen table coloring with his new crayons when Mamá suddenly drops the mug she had been washing in the sink with a clatter, wrapping her arms around her round tummy with a gasp. It had gotten much bigger in the five months since Carlos found out he was going to be a big brother – it was almost as big as a basketball now, and sometimes when he and Mamá were cuddling on the couch reading, he could feel little thumps and bumps as his baby brother wiggled around. Mamá would sometimes grunt when this happened, especially at the biggest ones, but then she would just laugh and tell him that it just meant his little brother was going to be an excellent football star someday.
This time isn't like any of those times, though. This time Mamá is bent over and breathing really hard, almost like she's crying, and Carlos is starting to feel a little scared.
"Mamá!", he exclaims, almost falling out of his chair as he stands up, reaching for her.
She takes a deep breath and tries to smile at him. "It's ok, mijo. Your brother is just dancing a bit, that's all." But her posture doesn't change and her eyes suddenly look dark in her pale face, almost like it was coated in flour. "Go get Papá for me, ok?"
He runs out of the kitchen as fast as his almost five-and-a-half year old legs can carry him towards the garage where he knows Papá is working on the Old Truck.
"Papá!", he yells, spying him on the other side of the garage. He dashes around the brand new Jeep Cherokee Mamá had convinced Papá to get a few weeks ago, what with the new baby coming and all (Old Truck only has three seat belts, and Mamá absolutely won't let anyone go anywhere without a seat belt). "Papá, come quick! It's Mamá! I think she's sick!"
Papá doesn't even hesitate, he all but throws his brand new power ratchet on the work table and follows Carlos back inside to the kitchen, where Mamá is kneeling on the floor now, one hand holding the edge of the counter so tight her knuckles are white, and the other over the spreading stain on the front of her dress, almost like she spilled spaghetti sauce down her front. But that doesn't make any sense; they aren't having spaghetti for dinner, just plain old chicken and -gag- vegetables – he knows this because she made him help wash everything earlier.
She looks up when she hears them come in, face even more pale and drawn than it was before. "Gabriel," she gasps Papá's name, her eyes scared and bright. "Gabriel, he's coming."
Carlos doesn't understand. Who's coming? His brother? But that can't be right; it was only just the end of August, Mamá and Papá told him his new brother wasn't coming until almost October. He remembers because he had already planned on a double costume for Halloween – he was going to be Buzz Lightyear, and his little brother, his amiguito, was going to be one of the aliens from Pizza Planet. Mamá had already started on the costumes, even.
"Aios dos mios," Papá whispers, and then in an instant he's across the room, scooping her up and carrying her like a princess. "Carlos!," he yells, "Carlos, get in the jeep! Now! Vamos!", which made things even more scary because Papá never yells, not ever. Not even when Carlos accidentally dropped a Hotwheels the garbage disposal and Papá got sprayed with smelly, chunky gross water.
And then, once they are in the car and Papa is backing them down the driveway, Mamá screams and Carlos wants to cry but he knows he can't, knows that Mamá and Papá are scared too and that his crying would only make it worse, so he just sits in the back seat of the car, clutching his RC car like it was a teddy bear.
And then everything just starts moving so fast; there are lights and sirens and loud voices and suddenly Abuela is there, scooping him into her arms and it was only then that Carlos starts to cry, clinging to his Abuela as her soft, liquid voice fills his ears. There is a big room and harsh lights and even more voices and they are all the way at the other end of a long busy hallway, but Carlos can still see the room where they took Mamá, can still see inside for a few seconds when the door opens and he sees Mamá on a bed, pale and crying, and Papá beside her holding her hand and talking into her ear like Abuela was talking into Carlos's and the doctor was holding something small and limp purple-red and then the door closed again and Carlos starts crying even harder, screaming out his fear and his anguish until he almost can't breathe for the sobbing—
And then... and then everything slows down and... stops, like when Mamá made Woody and Buzz and RC stop on the TV screen. Even Carlos can't move, caught between one sobbing breath and the next, but... he isn't afraid anymore. He feel... safe. Safe and warm, with Abuela's arms around him. All the scary loud confusion and noise stop, too; even the light in the room seems brighter, less harsh and more golden, and the air smells like oranges and apples and cloves, like Abuela's Ponche Navideño on Christmas Eve.
That's when he sees her. She isn't frozen, not like the rest of them. And she is so pretty – she reminds him of Mamá, with all her long dark hair and warm brown eyes, but her skin is pale instead of Mamá's warm golden brown, so pale she almost glows. Mamá glows sometimes, but not like that. Carlos decides she must be magic, too, just like Mamá – maybe even more magic, because Mamá was only able to stop the TV; this woman could stop and entire room! Maybe even the entire world!
She seems to notice him then, notices his eyes wide and staring at her from across the room. She smiles, and if anything, the room becomes even brighter as she starts walking towards him, carefully stepping around and between all the frozen figures until she can stand in front of him, close enough that he could reach out and touch the glowing light of her face he hadn't been as frozen as the rest of the people in the room.
Up close, her dark eyes looked a little sadder, with just an edge of frustration, like Mamá's do when she watches the news some times. But they are also kind, and when she raises her hand to gently stroke away one of the frozen, sparkly tears on his cheek, that little edge of sadness and frustration fades away and she's nothing but light.
And just like that, he knows everything is going to be alright. Mamá and Papá and bebe, everyone is going to be ok. With his realization, her smile grows even brighter, and she lifts her hand again to stroke his to his forehead, as if she's going to brush the hair away from his eyes like Mamá and Papá always do when they tuck him into bed each night—
And then he opens his eyes. That's funny, he thought they had already been open – how else could he have seen everything frozen? The room has changed, too; much brighter and quieter than the room he had been in before. And now it's Papá holding him safe and warm, not Abuela, and it's Papá's lap where his head is resting, like he fell asleep curled up next to him on the couch.
Carlos shifts, trying to sit up for a better look, but before he gets very far Papá has lifted him entirely to onto his lap. "Hey, el dormilón," he says once Carlos is settled comfortably across his hips. Papá looks tired, but his eyes are smiling. "About time you woke up."
Now that Carlos is upright, he can see that they're in a hospital room, and there is bright morning light streaming through the windows. Mamá is on the bed beside them; her skin still a little pale and she looks super tired - even more than Papá - but she is smiling, too, and she's holding and odd wrapped bundle in her arms. Once he's had a chance to get his bearings, Papá continues, "So... would you like to meet your new baby brother?"
Carlos perks up, looking around eagerly. Mamá laughs quietly and gently shifts the bundle in her arms. "He's right here, mijo. Come see. His name is Jarrod."
Carlos doesn't understand at first – it doesn't look like much, just a rolled-up bundle of towels or blankets. But then it shifts all on its own, one small tiny fist popping up out of the folds. It's so small that it almost looks like it should be one of Abuela's porcelain dolls, not a real live baby.
"Carlos, meet Jarrod," Mamá continues softly. "Jarrod Diego Rodriguez." She shifts the bundle again, tilting it up a bit farther, and Carlos is finally able to make out a small, wrinkly red face among the folds. "Jarrod, this is your big brother, Carlos."
Without thinking, he leans forward and gently grasps the tiny, waving red fists in his own small hand. He can't believe how tiny it is, no bigger than Papá's thumbnail! But bebe grabs his finger so tight it almost starts to pinch.
"Jarrod," he says slowly, trying the name out. Then he looks up at Mamá again. "Daz him?" he asks. "Daz my brother?"
Mamá is glowing again, her smile growing even bigger, and she shines almost as bright as the pretty lady in his dream.
"Yes, mi corazón. Daz your brother."
Notes: Surprise! Hope you enjoyed this little flash back as much as I enjoyed writing it! Old Truck is something of a custom rat rod Daz's dad made with HIS dad. Google "1950s truck with off road tires" and take your pick if you would like a visual. For real though, The Final Chapter - messy though it may be - is next. I have also thrown a few other surprises in if you decide to do a reread since... You know. It has been a few years (more than a decade).