Part 11

Part 11

Abuelo grabs my arm, the arm of the teenage boy, and pulls us into his apartment. I just stood there and said nothing, the boy on the other hand was telling him that he needed to hide because child services was going to be looking for him. Abuelo told him to calm down and he will take care of him. He sits us in the kitchen and makes us something to eat. We both just sat there gazing at our plates, not lifting the fork to eat. Then there was a knock at the door,

“Quien es?”

“La policia tenemos que hablar con usted.”

“Si, Si.” Abuelo opens the door and quickly exits.

We sat there in silence before the boy started talking,

“Is child services coming for you too?”

“No, Abuelo is helping me and I think he wants to help you too.”

“No one does nothing for free, what he want from you?”

“I clean the apartment buildings and stay out of trouble. Not so hard to do for a safe place to stay, ya know?”

“Yeah well, we’ll see. By the way, I’m Leonard, Leonard Whye. My Uncle call me Leo for short. What’s your name?”

“Aaliyah Petty.”

“No nickname?”

“No, not really.”

“How about I give you one? I would like to call you Yah, because Yah beautiful. Get it? Get it?”

We both laughed quietly and started to eat the food that Abuelo made for us. We shared a lot about the little past that we have, I don’t share my family problems though. I don’t trust anyone to get that close to hurt me again, it’s too soon. By the time Abuelo came back in, the table was cleared, his plate was made and in the microwave, food was put away, and the dishes were done. We made sure we did everything possible to make sure everything was neat and in order before he came back. I was hoping he would let Leo stay. He’s a nice boy, a year older than I am, very handsome, and tall. It would be nice to have someone that I know in the building besides Abuelo, you know, someone my age.

“Abuelo, would you like me to heat up your food?” I said waiting on his response.

“Thank you Princess, I can heat it up later. I need you two to get some rest, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Leo, you will stay with me until I figure out what to do. Princess, you go home and I will see you at six o’clock sharp. Be ready because I need to show the both of you how to survive in these streets and what to look for if Immigration comes to pick me up.”

“If you’re taking care of us Abuelo, they will give you citizenship. We can vouch for you.” Leo said with a strong face, trying not to cry.

“Abuelo, give us a few days to research what Leo’s saying before we bring more attention your way.” I said backing up Leo.

“Time is never on our side, that’s your first lesson. Both of you get ready for bed.” Abuelo said, heading into the kitchen area.