Tick….Tick…Tick The clock’s ticking is all you can hear when you’re bent over a hospital bed. I mean there is another person in the room with you, but without the gasping for air it gets pretty quiet. Why is that? Why is it that time seems to slow down when all you can do is think. Think? More like ponder. Was it my fault? I made a promise…but how was I supposed to protect her this time? My name is Lawrence Glenn. My family and friends call me Larry of course. I was raised up right here in Del Rio, Texas. Right next to the border. The person I was kneeling over was my sister Karen. I’m 10 and she’s 8. We’re just kids. What else could I do? Let’s start from the beginning. It started 3 weeks ago. My mom started seeing this guy Fernandez Hernandez. Who has a rhyming name like that. Fernandez Hernandez? What a tool. Well as you can see I despise this guy. He smells of Jim Beam and Marlboros. I can still picture him. Standing about 6 foot tall, black combed back hair, piercing shit brown eyes, and a stupid tattoo on his neck of a knife pretending to cut his throat. Ugh. It was Saturday night so my sister and I were getting ready for bed. Church started at 9 in the morning. My sister and I walked to Church every Sunday Morning to get free breakfast. We had little money, and our mother hooked on the streets to try and provide “something” I guess. She doesn’t think we know, but how could we not with the way she dressed. She was “working” that night when he showed up looking for her. Apparently she took some money out of his wallet to pay for some new lipstick. We told him she was out. He left…that time. About an 5 hours into my sleep I hear the door kick in. It’s Fernandez and his friend Benito walking in drunk. I can hear the moronic chatter of them trying to get this girl on the phone to come over. No dice. They were pissed. That’s when I heard Benito say he had to use the bathroom. I can hear his 250 pound fat ass stumbling through the hallway. I hear a door open and think nothing of it. That is until I hear my sister scream. I run over to her room to see Benito trying to pry her clothes off. I run to the kitchen where I find Fernandez passed out face down on the table. I wake him up to tell him what’s going on and to go help my sister. He looks at me, pukes all over the floor, then gets up to walk to the room. By the time we get there Benito has my sister almost undressed and Fernandez pulls him off. He tells Benito he can’t touch her until he’s had his way with her first. At this point I knew what would happen if I didn’t do anything about this. My mom had a gun in her night stand and I wasn’t going to let this happen. I ran as fast as I could and grabbed the gun. I made it back in time before he could try anything. Told him to stop or I’ll shoot. Fernandez stood up and laughed. I can still hear that laugh. It haunts me. He took one step towards me. BANG! I pulled the trigger. Fernandez fell. It seemed to be in slow motion. My adrenaline was rushing through my body. I can see his eyes staring into mine as his knees hit the ground. Then his head. I wanted to rush to Karen’s aid, but I wasn’t letting Benito get away with this. BANG! Same thing. I watched his soulless eyes drop to the ground. Karen was crying, but I protected her. She was the only one in my life that shared exactly what I’ve been through. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, and I showed her that. I wasn’t dumb. I knew someone would be calling the police. I told Karen to grab a bag and throw some clothes in it. I quickly packed some clothes, what little food we did have, the gun, and the last four bullets mom had in the night stand. We ran South. I knew where I was going. My Uncle lived in Acuna, Mexcio right across the Border. I knew it would be challenging to cross the border as two kids, so I had to think of a plan. We waited at a gas station until we saw a pick up truck stop to fill up. We ran and jumped in the bed as soon as we saw the owner of the vehicle step inside the store. I was glad to see he had a tarp back there that we could hide under. We kept quiet until we made it across the border. I know what you’re thinking. How did we not get caught? Well apparently the Border Patrol doesn’t care what the hell goes into Mexico, only what comes out of it. Either way we made it. I was glad too, because I had no intention of ever going back. Unfortunately though, showing up to our Uncles place wasn’t a success. What the -blam!-. He didn’t live there anymore. Now I felt lost. What do we do. 3 weeks go by with us living on the streets. Eating basically trash. Hiding out not knowing what could happen to us. Bad stuff could happen, and it did. Two guys were walking near when they heard us looking for food. I can see one of them was carrying a gun on his hip. Basically hanging out of his oversized idiotic pants. Why did they have to stop? I wanted to grab my bag because it had the gun, but one of the guys stepped up to me too quickly to even think about moving. Of course they say they don’t want any trouble. They say they just want to know why we’re out there alone. They look at my sister and ask her if she’s hungry. I tell them we don’t want their help and to keep moving on. The guy closest to me doing all the talking hits me and tells me to watch my mouth. I try my hardest to fight back, but he just over powers me. I get in a few swings then get punched in the face. I’m on the ground and I see Karen going into my bag. She pulls out the gun…BANG! I see Karen’s eyes as she falls to the ground. The asshole with the oversized pants saw her pulling the gun and beat her to the trigger. As the guys take off I run to my sister trying to hold it together. The sight of the blood all over her body. I couldn’t take it. My body literally couldn’t stand it. I passed out from shock. My eyes open slowly, and I realize I passed out. I sit up fast and notice we’re in a hospital. I see my sister in the bed next to me. No one in the room but us. She had a pipe in her to help her breathe. All I could hear was wheezing though. I could hear her breaths slow down. I knew she wasn’t going to make it. She grabs my hand as her last few breaths tick away with the clock. I know I’ll never be the same again after having to see my sister go through this. I’ll tell you this though. I’ll find those two guys if it’s the last thing I do. END