Siblings Stick Together

Chapter 3

5 years.

It had been 5 years since their no good father left them.

5 years of their mother's abuse.

5 years of Imelda protecting Oscar and Felipe from their mother's abuse.

5 years, and Imelda was perfecting the craft of shoemaking.

She brought Oscar and Felipe to work with her everyday.

The twins usually had fun.

Imelda usually had fun.

Pablo, the shoemaker teaching Imelda usually had fun.

However, today, they all felt uneasy.

So, when Imelda asked to leave early, Pablo agreed without hesitation.

Imelda ran home, the twins quickly following behind her.

In their neighborhood, however, they were stopped by their neighbor, an old woman named María.

"Imelda!" María yelled.

Imelda's head whipped toward her direction.

"Your mother...." María said. "Has died..."

Imelda was shocked.

She never loved her mother, but she was still her mother.

"How...." Imelda said.

María simply turned her head, unable to say how, and walked back inside her house.

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Imelda took the next few days off to care for her brothers, assuring that they would be fine.

Imelda, now 14, could care for her 7 year old brothers.

She knew she could.

However, on the 4th day of staying home, she heard a knock on the door.

She told the twins to stay on the couch.

She opened the door, which revealed a woman, with her hair tied up in a tight bun, and a pointy nose.

"Holá my darlings!" The woman said.

Imelda looked at her in confusion.

"Who are you?" Imelda asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Why, I'm your Tía Lucía!"

Imelda hissed in distaste.

So, this woman was either related to her mother or father, she didn't care which, she hated them both.

"What do you want?" Imelda spat.

"You seem busy, niña, I can watch your brothers over there while you work. In exchange for a room here."

Imelda did need someone to watch her brothers, and this woman could use her mother's room, Imelda didn't care for it anyway.

"Fine." Imelda hissed, letting the woman into the house.

She lead Lucía to her mother's room.

She put two dishes of dinner on the porch, one for a boy, three years older than her names Ernesto, and the other for boy one year younger than her.

The two treated each other like brothers.

Imelda took the twins to bed, and went to sleep, ready to go to work the next morning.