Friday, February 1, 2013

Sara Rodriguez-Fiction Piece 3: Pachada



Sara Angela Rodriguez
A415-002/Chambers
Fiction Piece #2
1/31/2013


What I was originally trying to do with this piece is write a happy story about a kitten and his best friend, this little red head girl named Lily (who somehow ended up being April). I was going to model the relationship between my two characters after the relationship between Rebecca Lizard and her lover, Hilda--comical yet heartwarming yet destructive--but somehow it ended up being this sad story about a kitten who meets its prospective owner. This is an unfinished piece. I have a perfect ending for it, I think. But for right now it will stay as is. 

Word Count: 680
Pachada

She reached her arms out to me as she shuffled closer to the bush that, in the last couple of days, I had resigned myself to call home.  Her red knees hit against her chin as she hopped closer to my hiding spot. I can remember her two little pig tails bouncing up and down with each scoochy springy step forward. Left, Right, Left, Right. Step by step she made her way towards me—her two muddy Sketchers leaving trails resembling a mucky yucky slushy slug.  I could see her sticky little fingers, covered in chunky peanut butter and strawberry jelly. I could see her boogery little face: her big sad periwinkle eyes outlined by a million bistre freckles, her upturned nose, and buck toothed smile with the awkward little gaps. She wasn’t, and still isn’t, the prettiest child in the world. But, she is mine. Rather, I am hers.

It took her no time to take me in though I resisted. I scratched and bit and howled and scratched some more, but she didn’t put me down. I regret doing that now. Her scars haven’t faded. She didn’t care how much I resisted, she loved me. I thought that was naïve. How could she love someone she had just met? Someone she had, literally, picked up off of the street? I didn’t know at the time that no one loved her. I didn’t know that she loved me with all the love she wished she had.

She ran through the park, into the streets, and past many big buildings. I gave up resisting and instead just peeked my head through her porcelain arms. I wondered how long she would hold out. Her breathe was already fading. As we ran from one street light to another I could see her cheeks puff out like bull frogs and her face as grey as an apple. I told myself that I would wait until she collapsed, until her tired little body would hunch over and die. I was sick. Correction, I still am.  She ran and ran, tripped and fell. I was hoping that she would loosen her hold on me as she tried to catch herself but she just leaned into the fall protecting me with her body. That was when I decided I would ride this out….whatever this was.

We came to a big, what looked like abandoned, house.We ran through the door. I could hear a man’s scruffy voice call out “April” as we zipped upstairs. She placed me gently onto her bed and covered me with the warmest blanket I had ever felt. Actually, it was the only blanket I had ever felt. She left me there as she frantically excavated through her closet. She found a long rectangular box, dumped its contents onto her peeling floor, reached for a towel, stuffed it into the box, and presented it to me. I was disgusted at the thought of sleeping in a box that had been full of filth. Little did I know that it was not filth that she kept in the box. It was treasure. She claimed that this box had always, and would always, keep her treasures.  To this day it does.

I…I…can never find someone that will suite me as well as she did. I can’t go on without her. She was mine. I was hers. April. What an amazing name, perfectly suited for such an amazing person. She shouldn’t have gone down stairs that night when that man called her down. She should have stayed with me. Now she’s gone. We hadn’t even been together for a day when he took her away.

April. It might be naïve, but I fell in love with you. Pachada you called me. Puh-Cha-Duh. You said it meant great, magnificent, and wonderful. Your teacher told you that. I think that you should have been named Pachada instead. You thought I would be your salvation. But, you were mine.

April. Thank you for showing this little kitty that the world isn’t as bad as he thought it was.

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