A BIG BROTHER

by Octavio Garibay

I was sitting, with the taste of milk and cereal I had that morning before my aunt had brought me to school.  Not knowing what my day would contain, sitting there with no real plans for afterwards, I was enjoying completely my day with my cars and hoping for maybe even nap in class. Carelessly, incredibly unimportantly, I spent my childhood.
           
Until it was time to go.

Usually my mom was there to pick me up from class before the bell even sounded, but this time she wasn’t. I waited there while I saw my friends and class mates left with their parents. 

“ Hahaha, Octavio, they are not picking you up because you are a dumb kid.” That’s what my classmates told me. But there was still no sign of my mom or dad, I felt horrendously scared that they had forgotten about me.
           
Nobody picked me up, so they called my aunt so she could me pick me up. 

“Well it’s not the first time they leave you, may be it’s because you talk a lot,” my aunt said. 

“ I’m very hungry. I want to eat.”

When we were walking back to her house, she told me not to get too drenched by jumping in the puddles of water because she wouldn’t let me sit on her sofas. 

I continued to do it and she hit me.  I felt like I wasn’t wanted anywhere,

“Get out of those puddles you little brat, I’ m not going to let you in so you can mess up my living room like a pig that you are.”

I started to cry and she told me that my parents wouldn’t pick me up if I were crying.
           
So I tried being quiet, but I asked her to eat and she told me to go sit down because my parents w ere on their way for me.  My stomach rumbled exorbitantly through the whole time and her velvet living room furniture made me feel unwelcome and too dirty to even sit on them.

My father came in and he looked exhausted,” Come on, M ijo, lets go.  Say thanks to your aunt”.

“Thanks, Tia.”

He told me that he was sorry for not picking me up at school, but that he really couldn’t because my mom had given birth to my sister. 

We left and I just went to sleep.

Because that day was not only about me playing with cars, it was about me being a big brother without even knowing it.