San Ramon: A Short Story

Knock, knock, and then I hide under my brother bed and he pretends to sleep. I was so anxious, that I started to get anxious and wanted to vomit, but I manage to hold it in. Beside by being nervous and nochious, her feet smell like a football locker room, and she is wearing my mom slippers. How dare you, she can’t wear my mom slippers with that gruesome feet. What her feet are purple, what is she. After she left we went down stairs to spy

I grab my suitcase, my phone on its charger, my sheets, and my snacks. I hurry out the door and pack my things in the car. I climb into the car and my mom begins to drive. I put on my headphones

My cousins, my sister, my brothers, and my aunt watched as the paramedics packed up their things. They had taken everything back into the ambulance outside where there were police cars and a fire truck. Everyone in my neighborhood had come outside because they heard the sirens and spotted the police cars. Many people had walked up to my sister and my aunt to ask what was going on. She quickly gave them a brief summary and we watched the police cars, the fire truck, ambulance drive off. My aunt and cousins told us to take good care of my mom and they slowly walked away. As soon as we could faintly hear the sirens, we walked back inside to check on my

It took me three times to get use to riding a bike and after I got it down, we decided to head out down the block to Independence park on the bikes. This was the only park in the city that had a mix of a skate park and traditional park. We would usually hang out in the playground since we did not skate. When we got to front of the park we set our bikes down by a wooden fence that separated the grass area and parking lot. Isabel and Bianca had rushed out to the swings and I did some snooping around the park. I was always curious about my surroundings when I went out since I did not have that luxury to be out or play when I would have wanted to. I loved taking in the scenery, the beauty of the nature, and the flowers. They were my favorite thing about visiting Independence park. I was walking around this fence that surrounded the playground until I had reached the restrooms. I noticed this huge brown paper bag sitting on this phone booth. I was secretly freaking out cause I was curious to what was inside. My mom had always told me not be a traviesa (naughty) and that I should never touch what doesn’t belong to me so I rushed off to Isabel and Bianca to tell them about the bag. I figured I needed some partners in crime for this. When I got to the swings I was very out of breath I was a pretty chubby kid growing up, but that still did not stop me from running, I enjoyed it a lot actually. As gathered myself together and took in a deep breath Isabel yelled, “What is it? Why are you running so fast?” I looked up to her and said, “There is a brown on phone booth just sitting there. It’s so strange no one is here at the park and it is just there. Why?” She gave me a look as if I had said the most uninteresting thing on the planet and continued to say, “Okay? Why does this

had been weathered. And then in 1986, Chris drove out to El Segundo, made the

We drove up the coast to San Fransisco and it took forever! Someone broke in, I got promoted and we saw the Phillies lose to the Dodgers. I got stuck in the airport for 2 days, we found Randy’s donuts and stayed in an airstream in the middle of Malibu.

Before realizing what was happening, a nurse was trying to put an IV in my arm. The needle compared to my little arm looked huge and too long to go in my arm. I refused to let them touch me and tried to run to my mom. When they had a hard time succeeding at putting my IV in, they decided to get help from my mom. She calmly told me to lay down and to watch her, while they put the needle in. It was hard to ignore the pain pulsing through my arm and all the commotion happening all around me. I looked at my mom and saw the tears that were falling down her face as they held me down. When they were done, there was an IV and a cast on my arm, so that I would not be able to pull the IV out. Then they wheeled me into another room where my mom held and comforted me, while we waited to hear the results.

This birthday had been wonderful. My friend Emily and I hiked up to a place called Griffith Observatory. I had heard that the view was amazing and you could see all of LA. I walked to a artsy concrete staircase where you could see the lively and bustling city in the background. From our point of view, the skyscraper buildings looked tiny and ant sized. The golden crisp sun had slightly set behind us and caused the sky to shift deep colors throughout the city. When the cotton candy like clouds drifted across the electric baby blue sky, I felt an overwhelming rush of pure happiness. The condensed and shrubby bushes in front of us were a shamrock green color, and looked as if they were full of life. I knew

Have you ever walked down that white tile floor that reeked of bleach, with a bouquet of roses and daisies, all tied into one? Well, I have. My brother was in a small hospital room for a little over a week, trying to recover from a car accident with a minor concussion. I remember standing close by my dad as we went into the huge elevator filled with people. I slowly made my way to the far right corner and waited till our stop. As the elevator ringed, we snuck out of the crowd of people and turned the corner. I knocked on the door. The door slowly squeaked opened with a nurse on the other end. I look over to the bed; my brother had needles and wires stuck into him like a pincushion. But yet, he still managed to get some sleep. I set the box of chocolates on the table beside him, and then set my own self onto the small, unpleasing couch. Trying to get comfortable, I

I walk into the room my cousins trailing behind me, I walk into the room and go to the bed closer to the door. I put my stuff on the bottom bunk and go to my closet and tape a sign on the front so they know this is my closet. A few seconds later Iris, Alicia, and Pastel walk into the room. Iris walks over to my bed and moves her arm across my bed swiping everything on the ground.

We were walking for a few hours. My feet throbbed and my ears were ringing from Taylor’s whining. Finally I could see it, the old abandoned house I discovered one day while riding my bike. The door was barely hanging onto its hinges, and there were several windows missing or broken. I pried open the splintering oak door. In the house there was two rooms. One, the one you first enter, was most likely a kitchen and living room. There was a sofa with faded fabric and springs popping out everywhere. An old furnace sat in the corner with rotting charcoal inside. The door of the furnace was missing rendering the whole thing useless. The other room was much smaller. It was a bedroom. There was a twin sized bed. The frame was rusty and missing a leg. I pulled the mattress off of it, so we could sleep on it. There were springs and stuffing sticking out of the mattress. It wasn’t too dirty to sleep on because I pulled off the moldy sheets. We laid down on the mattress. Taylor started snoring within minutes. I was worried about Mom. She had had a seizure before. It was because of her failing liver. Last time, social services took me and my sisters to a girl’s home. They served cooked vegetables that smelled like rotten seafood and chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken. After Mom got out of the hospital she got custody of us, but the judge told her if it happened again she wouldn’t get us back. My older sister, Becca, was eighteen so she didn’t have to

We drove for what seemed hours to my six year old self. When we arrived in the parking lot of the hospital, which I can never remember the name of, he told us why we were there. Lauren threw a fit, screaming and crying like someone was hurting her. She shouted “I never wanted him”. I believe that is still to this day the biggest lie she has ever told. We walked up to the big glass hospital doors, and straight through them to the elevator. I waited and waited for what seemed forever until the big silver doors opened, and my dad showed us which way to go. We walked past room after room listening to the crying and sometimes laughter. Finally, we got to the right room and we walked in. There sat my mother on a hospital bed. She didn’t seem hurt or in pain, but they said it was happening fast. At one point my mother’s father (Poppy) took us down to the cafe, and all I remember is that hospitals have very good spaghetti. My Poppy got a phone call and all of the sudden we were on the move, going through the halls like there was a fire we were trying to escape from. When we got back to my mother’s hospital room, everyone looked so upset; their faces, eyes and cheeks were red and

We looked at each other, stood up, and headed down the big hallway and around the corner to find my mom gasping at the fact that her water had broken. This was a surprise seeing as she was not due to give birth to my little sister for another two weeks. Once again, we were out the door and in the car. My grandmother did not put me in my car seat right and I remember struggling to free my arms the entire ride. My mom sat in the front seat yelling and muttering words under her breath. I was afraid because my mom was in such a strange state but I soon realized that she was yelling more at my grandmother than at her painful stomach. Every time we approached traffic, she gasped and turned behind her with her hand on my car seat, as to secure me from some ejecting force. It was not until years later that I was told all of the stories about what a terrible driver my grandmother was and how many cars she destroyed in various "incidents," as my grandfather calls them. We reached the hospital in plenty of time, but with one problem remaining, my grandfather and dad remained uninformed and unreachable as the resided among thousands of intoxicated football fans. They arrived in just enough time to see my mom before she had my sister, but not without strategic methods to get a hold of them. They first had to be paged over the intercom and when that seized to succeed, event staff members were sent to find them standing

As I slowly opened my eyes and drew in a breath, I started to realize where I was, I didn’t quite remember how I got there but I know that somehow I ended up in a hospital. There was a nurse in there who suddenly let out a gasp. Odd I thought, she quickly rushed out of the room and in what felt like an hour but really was a minute, came back with my parents and a doctor. My mom was sobbing and ran over to embrace me in a huge hug. After giving my mom and I a minute, the doctor walked over to me and started to explain what happened.

It was May 17th, 2011, it was a normal school day when my brother and I were told that my mom called to say that she was picking us up early. I was anxious, wondering why we were going home early and breaking our usual routine. When my mom came to get us, the first thing that I noticed was that she didn’t greet us with her usual smile. I was 9 years old, very observant, but not able to sense what was to come. We got into the car, when I asked my mom where we were going hoping