“Hey Ali man. You got a visitor,” Diablo said.
Ali stopped, stood up and just stared at me. My heart shook like an incubator. I hadspent the last four years being angry about what happened to mom, but now, at that verymoment, I couldn’t speak. I just wanted to run up to him and throw my arms around him.He was a whole head taller than me, with muscular arms and legs. He had fresh tattoospainted on his neck and along his knuckles. His hair was longer, but braided back intotight corn-rolls. He had a square jaw, large penetrating eyes and a gold tea.
“What the fuck?” Ali spat. My heart sank. He wasn’t happy to see me?
“Who brought her here?” Ali asked turning around in circles. The boys were silentand just looked at each other, until one of them spoke up.
“Diablo said that we should bring her with us. I told him you wasn’t going to like but—”
“Man. Shut the fuck up.” Diablo spat, sending the boy a look of death.
“So you brought my sister out here,” Ali asked accusingly. “Man. She was outside,in the dark, looking for you,” Diablo said trying to defend himself.
“What happened to her face?” Ali said sending the boys a beguiling glare. No oneanswered.
Ali’s jaw tightened as we walked over to Diablo. “Did you put your hands on mysister?” Ali said.
“No. I ain’t messing with her, this is the first time I’ve seen her in years,” Diablosaid.
There was a long silence as the two boys just stared at each other like cowboysbefore a deadly dual. We all watched in anticipation to see who was going to draw first.
“I can go back home,” I said timidly, wanting to keep the peace.
“Naw. I’ll take you. It’s too late for you to be out by yourself,” Ali said with his eyesfixed on Diablo. I swallowed hard. I supposed that I should have been rejoicing. I wasgoing to get some real time alone with Ali, but I was afraid of him. He was a monster, amurderer. He pulled away, marched over and grabbed my arm. We walked off, and Icould hear the boys snickering.
“Yeah, that’s it brother, handle your business. Make sure that little bitch never comesout here again, cause we got some candy for her to suck on,” Diablo said grabbing hiscrotch area. They all roared from laughter.
“What the fuck were you thinking coming out here by yourself?” Ali hissed.
“I came looking for you,” I said, running to try and keep up with his acceleratedpace.
“Nelly, why can’t you just leave shit alone?” he said. “Because I know what you didto momma,” I spat. Ali stopped, let go of my arm and faced me.
“What did you hear?” He asked bitingly.
“What do you mean what did I hear? The same thing the whole fucking town heard,that you’re wanted for takin’ out your own mother,” I screamed. Ali just shook his headand looked away.
“What?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything.
“What?” I screamed.
“I didn’t do that shit,” he mumbled, shaking his head.
“We came back that night and found mommy dead; you were gone,” I said.
“I know, Nico came and got me,” he said. “What!”
“Nico came and got me and told me that he was my real daddy, and that—”
“And that, what?”
He was silent.
“Come the fuck on, Ali.”
“That I needed to come and work for him,” he finally said.
“Who killed her?” I asked.
“I don’t know, one of Nico’s boys,” Ali said looking away. He couldn’t look me inthe eyes.
“Nico told me that it was brujeria. I needed to make people think that it was mebecause then no motherfucker would ever cross anyone who killed his own momma,” hesaid looking down at his feet. He looked around paranoid like someone was listening inon our conversation. His eyes widened in fear as a car with it high beams rolled by.
“Come on,” he said tugging on my arm.
“Ali, come home with us. You don’t have to do this,” I pleaded. “No, I do have to dothis because it’s all about blood and family.
And Nico is the only family I have,” he said.
“Ali. I’m your family,” I said resting a hand on his shoulder. Ali pulled away. Helooked at me and asked.
“What happened to your face?”
I pressed down on my jaw before I replied. “Maria—”
“Oh shit, is she beating on you?” he asked. I paused for a second, before I replied.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
I shifted my eyes to the left, trying desperately to search my internal database forlies. I needed something good, something believable. I needed to tell him something thatwould force him to come back home. Yes, that’s it. If he felt that Maria was abusive, thenhe would come back because he would want to protect me. I squinted really hard. Luckyfor me, it was really dark and my brother couldn’t see my facial expressions.
“She beats on me all the time,” I said lowering my head and voice.
“Shit,” Ali said shaking his head.
“Ali, you have to come back home. I just don’t feel safe there without you.” Ipleaded.
He stood silently with his arms crossed over his chest. He was just looking at me,and I would have paid a million dollars to know what he was thinking.
“Come on, I want to show you something,” he said.
We walked up to a place that I thought that I recognized. It was a twenty-four hourdiner that seemed to have survived the riots and crack wars. The ceiling was bare, exceptfor a few naked lightbulbs. Waitresses with horse weave ponytails, served single mothersand small families of four. I tore my eyes away. For some reason, I was alwaysuncomfortable seeing loving families. It was a cruel reminder of what I didn’t have. Aliand I walked in and slipped into a booth.
“Ali, I feel like we’ve been here before,”
