Prism - By Rachel Moschell Page 0,51
through the door, shoulders sagging with relief. “It’s me. We’re here.”
The door opened with a soft whoosh, revealing an entire clan of people, gathered behind Alejo’s father in a nervous cluster. Alejo blinked. And stared. Pablo Martir looked the same, except for the sprinkling of silver in his jet black hair. He was a little shorter than Alejo, but the square jaw that the pastor clenched as he stared at Alejo was the same one Alejo saw in the mirror every day.
“Hello,” he stammered. Then, “C’mon, we should get inside”. Head spinning, he guided Wara by the arm through the doorway as his parents and all the children scuttled out of his way. Alejo closed the door with one foot and slid the deadbolt into place.
His mother stood there, older but still beautiful.
Had he really not seen his mother in so many years?
Noly Martir was staring at him as if she were seeing a ghost.
“I-I’m glad that you’re here,” he said hoarsely. Next to him, Wara sunk onto one of the room’s many beds. The room was large and lined with about eight single beds, all with pink pinstriped sheets. Alejo paced to each of the windows, making sure they were secured and not easy to open.
“Anyone following you on your way here?” he asked them. “Any strange cars outside your house?”
Everyone shook their heads no, staring at him with wide hazel eyes that mirrored his own.
“Everyone left behind their cell phones?” Alejo was relieved that they all nodded. He had a couple of implanted tracking devices, in case anyone needed to track him when he was on assignment. They wouldn’t be a problem now, though, because the things had to be activated at close range by whoever was going to track him.
The teenager who must be his little brother Nathaniel watched him with something like awe, never leaving his mother’s side. When Alejo left Cochabamba to live with his uncle, Nathaniel had been two and toddling around the patio in soiled Pampers.
Nareth, Nadia, Nestor, and Naveli huddled on one of the beds, not recognizing him even a bit. They had all been little babies when he stopped by his parents’ house for the only time after running away. He only went home to get some of his clothes and CDs. Just a quick stop before he headed back to Santa Cruz and his uncle on the bus. No time to spend with a preachy old preacher and a mother who constantly prodded about how he was doing and a house-full of raucous little Martirs who kept multiplying like rabbits.
Naveli had been born several years after he had last seen his family. Now he picked her out right away, a little seven-year old hanging on one of Pastor Martir’s legs, whimpering.
Alejo sank down onto one of the unmade beds and planted his feet firmly on the floor, determined not to be sick. “There are definitely some things you need to know,” he swallowed hard, “now that I’ve gotten you in this mess, but first…” he stood up stiffly from the bed and fought the urge to pace.
“We need to get Wara to a doctor,” Pastor Martir interrupted with concern, staring at Wara and surely thinking about the fact that she had been in a near-fatal bus accident. Alejo held up one hand.
“I know that she’s in some pain, but she’ll be fine. I asked the guy downstairs to have a taxi sent over with some anti-inflammatories from the pharmacy. The nose is probably broken, but I won’t be able to tell for forty-eight hours if it needs to be set. The swelling has to go down first.”
Noly and Nazaret audibly gasped as they swung around toward Wara, noticing for the first time her puffy, bruised face. Crusty patches of blood had dried around her violet and yellow nose. Alejo felt low as a dog, knowing everyone was looking at Wara and assuming this had happened to her in the bus accident.
The accident that he had caused. Before punching a girl in the face and knocking her to the ground, then dragging her away with a knife to the throat.
“Oh dear Lord! The accident!” Noly gasped, catching her hand over her mouth. “I still can’t believe…we heard on the news that everyone was dead, even though SAR search and rescue has just begun to bring up the bodies. And then you chatted with Nazaret…” Noly’s pale face flashed back towards Alejo. “And she said you were with Alejandro. Wara…” Nazaret’s mother