edited
"Alright Nida, time for bed." My mom said, turning off the television. It was always peaceful at night in our house. From our small apartment in the heart of North Carolina, you can hear the wondrous sounds of the city outside. The stupid crickets, the faint sounds of passing cars, the slight sound of electricity. It may sound annoying and irritating, but honestly it's not. It's like the night time has its own song that replays every day at the time of 7pm.
John, my eight year old brother, and Adeline, my two year old sister, were sloppily laying on the old, ragged couch, snoring slightly. Saturday nights were always like this: my siblings and I would stay up as long as we could, attempting to be awake when Papá came home. He always worked late shifts at the construction site, and he worked another shift during the day at another construction site. All in all, he gets about 4-5 hours of sleep per day, 6 if he is lucky. Papá does so much so we can pay rent in our apartment, and he absolutely refuses for mama to get a job. So old school, my family. My twelve year old eyes are heavy with the desire to sleep, so when Mamá declares that it's time to go to bed, I'm eager.
"Buenas noches Mamá." I mutter, my voice barely louder than a whisper.
I trudge my legs through the hallway of our apartment, passing the brown, wooden doors. The wood is peeling a little, as is the ugly floral wallpaper. It's a two bedroom apartment, so I share one with my two siblings. Our room is bare, a white wall with 2 beds and a dresser. There's no complaining coming from me, I have my own bed. That's all I need to be okay.
Falling face first into my bed, I'm out within seconds.
•••
"¡Por favor, señor policía, no se lleve a mi marido!" My mother shrieks from the front room. My eyes jump awake and I bolt out of my bed to the living room to see what's going on. Two police officers, one black and one white, have my father in handcuffs. What's going on? What did he do? My father is in an immense state of panic and Mamá is hysterical with tears flowing down her face. I can literally feel my chest cave in with fear and it deepens when I see the horrid faces of my siblings. Adeline is cowering behind John, her crying with my mother. John has a hard face, but I know my brother; he's scared out his mind.
"What's going on?!" I scream, my voice breaking a little. Everyone's eyes shift to me but I hold my stance, no matter how fearful I am. Both officers look very nonchalant about everything, as if they arrest peoples fathers at 3am every day for no reason. Papá isn't the type of person to get into trouble. He's the type to get everyone else out of it; so for him to be getting arrested is preposterous.
"Nida-" Papa starts, pain and fear etched into his voice, but the white officer cuts him off.
"Your father is undocumented, we're taking him into custody." He informs and my mom clutches her chest. I immediately knew what was happening: my dad is going to get deported. Both my mom and dad are Mexican and came to the states illegally before I was born, making my siblings and I legal, yet them illegal. My blood froze upon realization that they're taking my father away.
"Por favor!" Mama pleads, yelling over Adeline's screaming fit. With every passing second, a little more of the light in my parents eyes die a little, which breaks my heart more and more. The black officer rolls his eyes.
"We don't speak Spanish lady." He snaps and I flinch. Why is this happening? How did he get caught? Thousands of questions run through my head all at once, making it hard to breathe. I feel the tears fall down my face as if my dad was dying. In a way, it felt like he was. Taking a man away from his family is like putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Never in a million years did I think that my Papá was being taken from us, so I never got the chance to prepare.
"Don't go Papá!" Addy screams from behind John. Mom puts her face in her hands for two seconds and looks at me. It breaks my heart to see her face the way it is; it's like she's about to lose a major artery in her body. Like she's losing another piece of her.
"Nida, ¡saca a tu hermanos de aquí!" She instructs me to take my siblings out of the room. After getting out of the frozen state I was in, I scoop up Addy and grab John's wrist before dragging them to our room.
The rest of the night, all I heard was the pleading from my mother and the officers yelling back. My father would speak a few times, but he only spoke Spanish to my mom attempting to calm her down. The arguing went on for about 5 more minutes; then all I heard was the loud sobs of my mother.
With that, we never saw my father again. That was 6 years ago.
•••
[A/N]
Hey y'all! So the first readable chapter is up! I know it's kinda cliche BUT I have an idea that will absolutely throw you guys off that has to do with her dad.... ;) Everyone mentioned in this chapter, with the exception of the police officers, will be mentioned throughout the entire book. Don't worry, I know the prologue was short but from now on the chapters will be long because I know I hate reading a book and it have really short, staccato chapters. I plan to update either once every 3 days or once every 5 days. Bear with me if I don't stick to that schedule because Im most likely busy. My dumbass decided to start a book a few weeks before finals and the end of the year and a week before a few test. Ahhh That's all-
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~ Erica Letta
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Spanglish | editing
Teen Fiction"Daniel please-" He growled cutting me off mid sentence; making it obvious that he's pissed beyond belief. I never knew that telling him my past would upset him, at least not like this. I thought that after all we've been through, after everything t...
