Cheito and his
friend Ramon went out to the courtyard. They put their plastic soldiers down in the
sandbox and started to dig forts and trenches in preparation for the battle
they had planned. The bad smell hit them. His friend said that maybe there was
a dead rat somewhere in the yard. They searched around and found blood pooling
from a drip from the kitchen gutter of one of the second story apartments. Old
Mr. Garcia lived in that apartment. His wife had left a couple of days before to
go visit relatives in New Jersey. The boys ran up the stairs to the apartment
and found the door open. They knocked, got no answer and went inside without
waiting. The bad smell was incredible. Mr. Garcia lay on the floor, his head
against the refrigerator door, a couple of bags of groceries strewn around him.
They ran from the apartment to tell his Ramon's mother, unable to shout,
silenced by the gruesome sight.
Jose M. Caldas, September 27, 2013.
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