Sweet Thing

Awake

Lupe

Quan was watching me so intently that you'da thought I was the most interesting ER patient in the world. When she wasn't just staring at me from the chair across the room, she'd kneel at my bedside and just gaze at me with her dark brown eyes. She just studied me and whispered to me anything that was on her mind. She thought I was still asleep, but I was awake and just too tired to talk.

My whole family was in my room, but they'd stepped out to give me and Quan a little time alone. Her hand would reach out to touch me repeatedly, but she always stopped short of her destination every time. Instead, she'd just smile at me wistfully.

"I'm glad you're okay, Lupe. I don't know what I woulda done if you had been missing any longer. Probly gone on a rampage and attacked Rico again, like a maniac. I'mma apologize to your family later on. 'Til then, I'mma just stay here with you."

It hurt like all get out, but I opened my mouth to speak. I told Quandra with labored breathing and a wheezy voice, "Thanks, baby."

Her eyes lit up and she kissed my intact shoulder. "You're awake! I'mma call in everybody else. Just hold on a sec."

After a second, my whole family squeezed through the door like a school of fish. Papi was the last in, but the first to hold my hand and grin at me as proudly as he had when I won my first spelling bee in third grade and I'd spelled the world 'pterodactyl' without any help. Mami join him on the same side, but only stroked my cheek lovingly.

Andres, Maria, Carmina, Luz, and Quan were all around my bed, too, and I gave them a weak smile. My face was still throbbing a bit on the left side and my bottom lip was surely swollen to twice the usual size by now.

"Lupita," Mami started gently, "we're all so glad to see you okay."

"We are," Papi agreed.

"Thanks for coming, everybody. And Quan, thanks for finding me. I love all you guys so much. I just can't make long speeches." They all chuckled with me, except for Andres. He flashed a quick half-smile, but I knew he had something else on his mind. Knowing him, he was probably thinking of twenty-one ways to find the people who'd left me in the creek and two thousand and five ways to get them.

A knock came from the door, and Papi opened it. Two tall, solemn-faced cops walked in and hovered a few feet away from my bed as Carmina and Luz gave them space to see me better. The first was around forty, thin, and had a few crow's feet forming around his almond eyes. The second was slightly younger, but not by much, and his skin tone matched Papi's exactly and he had curly, jet black hair like Andres'. They introduced themselves as Officer Han and Officer Mendez to everyone before they started to ask me questions.

"Lupe, we only need a little bit of info from you, sweetheart," Officer Han told me. "We know you're probably very drained from the past several hours, but we need to strike while the iron is hot."

Officer Mendez picked up where he started, "Can you give us a description of the people who hurt you, Miss Castillo?"

My lips were dry and cracked, and my throat was on fire. I knew being found meant that I'd have to talk eventually and tell somebody who had done it, but I couldn't talk to the police without talking to Quan about it first. She knew how to deal the police and when not to talk to them. The long pause I'd made apparently meant something to the officers,

"We understand if you don't want to recall that memory yet, but we need to know sooner rather than later," Officer Han said. "When your girlfriend found you, you had zip-ties on your wrists and ankles and duct tape over your mouth. Maybe you didn't see the people, but many you can describe what happened?"