INDICA ♔ ON MY BLOCK [OSCAR DIAZ]

THREE

"So, I'm not the only one who notices the girl?" Jamal's voice became distant and muffled to Ximena's ears, almost as if he wasn't really there.

"What girl?" Ximena bit down on her lip as Oscar fixed his Santo chain straight, the diamonds still sparkling at night.

She managed to snap out of her daze as the older boy swiped off his hands, walking over to Jamal. He nodded down, "You're up."

"To do what?" Jamal asked.

"Open the casket, go."

The teenager whimpered, stepping down into the hole, "Alright, alright."

He gave one last eery look to Oscar as he continued to try to clean himself up. Ximena instinctively began wiping at his cheek to remove the dirt as Jamal began to yell, making her snatch her hand away.

"Um, hello!"

"Sorry," she muttered, both of their faces flushing red with embarrassment as she put her hand back at her side. Oscar tried his best not to smile as he watched Jamal knock on the wood of the casket.

He gave it a few seconds, holding his ear against the wood before standing up, "Okay, sounds full. He's definitely dead."

"Nope," The Santo shook his head, "We need full confirmation."

"Look," The boy snapped, "This isn't my first rodeo, and I can smell him! He's dead, and I know this because I've done more than a few embalmalongs at the morgue."

As Ximena began to chuckled at the lie, Oscar spat, "Bullshit."

"Okay, fine," Jamal began to whine, giving up, "but, I have thought enough about dead people to know what they smell like and they smell like-" As the two began to grow frustrated and tired, Jamal continued, "What if-what if he's dead, alive? Like a zombie. I don't want to get bitten!"

"Zombies aren't real," Oscar shook his head.

Ximena sighed, tilting her head, "Come on, just open it."

"Why me? Why can't y'all do it?!"

"Because," Oscar answered.

"Because why?!" The teenager screamed back, his arms flailing.

"Because you got all that shit on," The Santo gestured to Jamal before he did Ximena, "and she's a girl and-" he paused, "I don't wanna get a ghost."

"Get a ghost," Jamal repeated back slowly.

"Yeah," Oscar nodded his head, beginning to explain, "Lil' Ricky's in there all unhappy and shit. I don't want to startle him into taking over my body."

"So, it's okay for me to get bitten by a zombie but you dont wanna get a ghost?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Listen, there are friendly ghost, there are no friendly zombies! If ghosts are bad its because they have unfinished business, but zombies? Zombies are unfinished business and they're always pissed!"

"You're not gonna sway me, I know what I know."

"He's right, Jamal," Ximena began to nod her head, lightly hitting Oscar on the chest, "tell him about your tio."

"He caught a ghost when he was two, opening his grandpa's casket," Oscar explained, "From that moment on, he could only walk backwards."

"He was two, maybe he was just a kid who walked backwards!"

"Or, maybe he got a ghost!"

"Your name is Spooky and you're afraid of ghosts?!"

The Santo grew irritated quickly, the veins in his neck beginning to show as he yelled, "Open the casket!"

"Okay. Just promise me one thing you guys," Jamal glanced in between the two.

"What?"

"If I get bitten, you'll give me a clean shot to the head and you'll go through the ear, not the eye socket! If there's an antidote I don't know about, then I can keep my eyesight after they rehabilitate my brain-"

"Go!" Oscar's face burned red hot.

Jamal pathetically whimpered again, crawling back down into the hole, stepping closer towards the casket. He took a deep breath before carefully peeling the door open. He stopped, staring at what was left behind. It wasn't Lil' Ricky, there wasn't even a body. It was a familiar Santo gnome, that only one person had access to.

Jamal looked up to the sky, shaking his fists as he rose his hands up, "Chivo!"