The Death of Venturi

01 | Sickness

sick·ness
/ˈsiknəs/
noun
the state of being ill.
_________________
01| Elena Carla Ramos

I walk out of the room, rushing to mama's room. It's locked and another man is in there. The smell of smoke and weed hits my nose and I cough it off. I knock on the door, hard.

"Mama, por favor salir de la cuarto. Melania esta mala." I yell.

She has a fever of 103.5, she's shivering, crying, mocos everywhere, she's been coughing up blood, a headache that doesn't seem to leave her, she's been losing an unexplainable amount of weight.

Another night, another night that mama ignores my little sister because she's doing things with another man to get money.

Some fuss goes on in the room and the door is jerked open, mama in her bra and pants half off. A blunt in her hand, the man is in the back of the room. Eyes running down my body, white lines on the nightstand and the powdered bag next to it with pills laying on it. The man's shirt is off and so is his pants.

I jerk my eyes off of his old saggy bitch ass. I feel a sneer fall into place on my face.

"Qué quieres, Carla?" She sneers at me, giving me the look. The look of, leave me the fuck alone I'm trying to make our rent and food money. But Mel is more important than that fucking prick in her room.

"Melania has another fever of 104 degrees, she's getting worse. We need to take her to the fucking hospital, I'll find a way to pay it all off I swear. I just need to make sure she gets help, mama, por favor." I whisper-beg her. It's pathetic but I'm going to try to do something not be like her, fuck random guys that give her $30 a hour. Like she's some fucking slave, sex slave for sure. She can't feed her kids.

Can't take care of us to the bare minimum, can't watch after us. Just drugs and sex.

Her nose flares, "No, I'm busy. I'll take care of her later." She slams the door on my face. I grit my teeth, body tensing. I want to beat the shit out of this bitch.

She's no mother. Fuck her. I rush the front of the apartment, rip the keys off of the hook and go to Mel. I change, put some decent pants and shirts on both of us. I put her socks and vans on, doing the same to me after. I grab a blanket for her, I go to the kitchen and grab Advil for her.

The only thing we have. I get 3 pills for her and a bottle of water. I don't know how to drive properly so I can just pray on this. I go back to the room, give her the medicine and pick the keys up again.

I hold her head in my hands, "I'm gonna get you help, okay? Don't worry about the money or mama. I'm going to take care of you and deal with it." I reassure her, giving her a kiss on the head. I take her hand and leave the apartment. We have no money for a phone for me, so I just take my taser and gun. I put Mel in the back and buckle her up. I get to the front and start the car. I take a deep breathe and pray that we make it to the hospital safe, the Mel is safe and she's fine, that I can make up all this money. I say Amen and do a cross on my body and Mel's.

I drive off, slowly. Making sure no police officers are on my ass and so I don't crash. Melania start's coughing blood up and wheezing, sniffling and crying. One second her teeth are clashing together then the next she's sweating.

I start panicking, driving faster. I make some turns, not great but we turned and are alive. 3 minutes later, we're at the hospital. I carry her from the backseat to the inside of the hospital.

Nurses rush to me, taking Mel from my arms and asking all these questions that I can't keep up with.

*"What's her name?"