School for me ends at 1pm. The older kids go up to 4pm. I have to leave my sister at school. It is not far from school to home. I can go all by myself but I don’t have to. There’s other kids from the neighborhood. Not the neighbors on the block.
I don’t know where the neighbors go to school. I have seen the older girls leave early in the morning sometimes. I watch through the window. I don’t know where they go. I always try to follow with my eyes but momma tells me to leave the window.
I don’t have school uniform yet. Dad promised that next year. I could not fit in my sister’s older uniforms, I’m much smaller. I wear my church clothes to school.
Today I wore my red jacket. The one with a large pocket at the back. In fact the entire back is a large pocket. Momma tells me not to carry stuff in it, that it makes my back look lumpy.
Momma won’t be home when I get there so I stuff my juice bottle in the large pocket. Pleased with myself, I put the lunchbox in my backpack which I sling over my already lumpy back.
I’m in a rush today. I want to get to my mother’s cabinet before she gets home. She keeps all manner of ointment tubes in the cabinet. She has cures for everything I believe. She always applies some white cream when the mosquitoes bite and I stop itching immediately.
I had a bad dream last night. I don’t remember what it was but it was after I heard them at the window.
I woke up with a rash on my wrist. It gets very itchy sometimes but then it’s stops. And starts again. When Ms.Rosa was making us read the charts on the wall it got real itchy. I had to pull up my sleeve to scratch.
The rash has become very dark. It is changing. Like bumpy lines on my wrist. I have to rush home and apply the stuff from the tubes so that momma doesn’t have to take me to the hospital.
Sometimes they use needles in the hospital. Dad says the needles make sure you heal faster. I don’t like them. I am going to heal myself with the creams before they see my wrist. I won’t go to the hospital.
I run most of the way home. There’s a large avocado tree just before you get to my block. There’s never been avocados in that tree. I find him by the tree. The little boy from next door. He is my age I think but he doesn’t go to my school.
He doesn’t say anything, he’s just standing there. I don’t know why but I stop. I think it’s the way he looks at me. It’s the first time I have looked him in the eyes.
Suddenly, I no longer feel the sun that was beating down on my head as I ran home. The birds go quite. Or it’s my ears that go deaf. I feel like I have been suddenly thrust out of my body.
The sky turns so black so suddenly, I look up. It feels like the grey clouds are rushing at me. Heavy dark droplets rush at me. I feel the tingling of the rain drops rushing down my legs before I feel them on my face.
I look down to see where the tingling in my legs is coming from. Immediately, everything goes back to normal. It’s day again. The chirping of the birds is loud once again but i can still feel the liquid sliding down my socks into my shoes. I turn to look. It’s juice from the bottle in my jacket. It’s seeping through my jacket. I know I made sure the lid was tight before I put it in.
I look up and the boy is gone. It’s almost as if I imagined him. My heart is still beating fast from seeing the black rain rushing at me. I run the rest of the way home.
Deaz is there when I get there. She’s my mother’s elderly aunt. She watches the house when we are away and waits for me so that I’m not home alone till everyone returns.
I rush past her. “Your food is on the table” she calls after me. I run all the way to my parents’ room. It feels safer there. Immediately I climb up their bed and go to the window. Jacket still dripping juice and all. He is outside, the boy, looking straight at the window. At me. He’s frenzied, scratching at his wrist. I look down at my wrist as it starts to itch again.