What Night Brings (Working Classics) by Carla Trujillo

Author:Carla Trujillo [Trujillo, Carla]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Published: 2003-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

“I’m gonna say it just one more time. If you two don’t start showing some respect toward me, I’ll kick your little asses every day until you do. Now, clean up this shit. Both of you!” We didn’t move. There was spaghetti sauce everywhere. “Now!”

Corin slowly stood up and picked the pan up off the floor. I sat up part way, but couldn’t move very much.

“Oh, and another thing,” He turned back toward us and pointed his finger as he spoke, “I don’t ever want to eat this spaghetti crap again. You hear me?! If you have to cook, you’d better cook me some goddamn beans and chile. And learn to make tortillas, too. I ain’t eating none of this shit you cook anymore. It’s about time you started learning things that’s gonna do you some good, and that’s learning how to cook food a man will eat. I wouldn’t give this shit to a fucking dog. Don’t fix this crap again, Marci. You hear me?”

I didn’t answer him.

“Answer me!!”

“Okay,” I said. Then he walked out of the house.

We heard his car start and the tires screech as he took off.

“We have to tell Uncle Tommy.” Corin sat back down against the wall. Her left eye was purple and it looked like it was swollen shut.

“I know, but we can’t walk to his house. It hurts to move.” I tried to sit up and had to lie back down. I looked at my legs and arms and saw bruises everywhere. My hand had swelled up and felt broken. My eye was bleeding by my eyebrow.

Finally I crawled over to the phone. I already knew Uncle Tommy’s phone number by heart. I heard the phone ring three times, then started to get scared. On the fourth ring he picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Uncle Tommy. It’s Marci.”

“Hi Marci. What’s going on?”

“Well, our dad hit us again. This time, really hard. I can hardly walk and Corin is messed up, too. Can you come over and get us?”

“Where’s your mom?” he asked.

“At work. Eddie left, but I’m not sure when he’s coming back. We’re too scared to stay here. Come and get us, okay?”

“All right,” he said. “I’ll be right there.”

I hung up the phone and looked at Corin. “He’s coming.”

“Do you think we should clean this up?” Corin asked, looking at the mess on the floor.

I looked at the kitchen. The noodles had been boiling the whole time and the pot was over by the wall with a big dent in it. There was sauce over most of the kitchen floor. The brown tile with the red all over it made it look like the floor was part of us.

“Nah. Leave it. That way Mom will know what happened.”

In a few minutes Uncle Tommy came over. He looked at both of us and the mess.

“Híjole!” He walked over to Corin and looked at her eye. “Jeez, what’d he do to you?” He saw me leaning against the stove and looked at my bruises, my hand, and the cut over my eyebrow.

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