The jury of aunts and uncles sit along the long white foldable tables set up in the front yard, and stand up in unison to welcome them. Isaac (ee-sah-AHK) kisses and hugs all members of the jury one by one until he gets inside the house. Isaac’s mother makes small talk with the jury and talks about the trip. Isaac steps over rainbow colored foam mats, plastic doll houses, neon cars, dinosaurs, crazy toddlers, etc., to hug his godfather, Lucio.
Este vato, last time I saw you you were still right here, now I have to look up. You’re gonna be tall like you’re dad huh? Come here bro. Put it there. Let me see your handshake. C’mon. You need to be firm. Stiffen your arm. You need to have a good handshake. Andale. Asi, macizo. There you go. What’s up, man? I see you a little timid. Calling me sir and all that. You already know bro, relax. Pretty soon you’re gonna be in my place. I know I don’t look that old but… Ahh Heh Heh… Andale, laugh, relax bro. Ahhh…anyway, it’ll pass. You’ll lose that respect for me. You’re getting older. Soon enough we’ll be the same. You’re becoming a man, son. You’re gonna be a big man. You’re going to have presence… Since you’re not a boy no more… Come, I’m gonna show you something… Right in there. There you go. That’s for you. Para un hombre. Come here boy. Your dad would be proud of you son. You keep that safe. Now, where’s my sister? C’mon, let’s go say hi to your mom.
***
Christmas at his grandparents was always Isaac’s favorite. The white, three-story, cinder-block house, covered in green and red and white lights. Inflatable Santa Claus and reindeers like twenty feet high, bouncy houses, hot chocolate, and a whole churro stand. Not to mention enough cousins to play a game of kickball with ten a side, plus bench and reserves. But this year Christmas was to be in a mansion that his godfather managed to acquire for the holidays.
Lucio walks into the Tv room where the big kids are (Ages eleven through nineteen; Isaac sixteen). In a sofa where five could squeeze cram nine and the rest sit or lie down on the floor. On the tv a laughing clown has a woman hung on a hook, upside down and naked, and uses a chainsaw to cut her in half. The colors from the Tv glow across the room and refract in the liquor bottles collected in the floating cabinet above the sofa. The painting of the Christ hangs in darkness at the wall’s navel, perpendicular to the Tv. A tiny, framed, dull, color abstraction. A lone island in the crimson sea.
That night Isaac slept over with his cousins at his aunt Jessica’s, who always works night shifts at the corner store and hooks them up with snacks. Before he left with them his mother had a talk with him.
Ay you’re uncle. He’s always so… (exhale). You know how he is. Did you say thank you? My brother’s always been like that with everyone. The other day your aunt Abbi’s kid, Michael, he had this song-video thing, there on the phone, that he was watching, and there he was, singing La- San-Di-A, and your uncle heard him and he was gone for like thirty minutes, he said he was going to the store, and he comes back with a watermelon because he thought the kid was asking for watermelon. And like that, with everyone… But you know, with you how he is (Isaac’s mother’s nostrils begin to flare as she talks). He’s always been there (and her voice gets higher). Like he was your father. And he sees you like a son, even though he likes to get along, he tries to take care of you (and the water works go). I just… feel so much for him and everything he’s been through, and how he is, he’s always smiling, always taking care of everyone. Don’t tell anyone I told you this but him and Linda aren’t together anymore. They broke up a few months ago. He doesn’t say anything but I know he’s been through a lot. Pobrecito. This is between you and me. The other day he told me, this was before they split up, that he didn’t…(breaks down again) He was afraid to try to have a baby again…because he didn’t want anything to happen again… He feels cursed… Ay mijo… (sigh). You have to go. Your cousins are waiting. Be careful. Don’t do anything stupid. I know how your cousins are and your aunt lets them get up to anything. If they watch any ugly movies just tell them you don’t like those.
***
You’re telling it wrong. So, these brothers, twins, were going around acting like hot shit, you know like saying that the town was theirs, and they’d post pictures with their guns and money. Puro Cartel *******. I don’t think a week even passed and one day they turn up. You saw them didn’t you Nico. Yeah, cause he’s got school in the mornings.
Yeah. It was… I don’t even want to talk about it man. Alright, alright. It’s a good thing I walk to school cause imagine my mom was taking me. So, right in the front lawn, right in front of the school, they showed up both of them, naked, with their hands and feet tied, and they had cut off their…cock and balls, everything.
But that’s not where it ends. As you could imagine the twins’ mother was in a bad depression. She didn’t have a husband. And well there were always rumors and honestly, I believe them. The lady is a witch. About a week after the twins died, not even a week, the guys who you know did that to them, supposedly, they show up in the woods, there’s pictures, they didn’t have eyes, but other than that they didn’t have marks on their bodies, but supposedly they found that everything inside them was messed up, like all their intestines and shit were blown up or twisted, like not where they were supposed to be.
That’s enough man, it’s scaring you right? We don’t need to talk about that. Let’s talk about tomorrow.
Pinche tío Lucio, he’s renting a whole ass mansion.
He’s not renting that shit man, he’s got friends.
What do you mean?
You know. Friends that can do favors…
***
What’s the point of spending Christmas eve in a mansion? Everyone was still sat outside in the backyard drinking, sat at white foldable tables. There weren’t even bouncy houses or churro stands. The kids wanted to go inside but didn’t think they’d be allowed, so they sent Isaac to ask Lucio. He acquiesced. But the kids could not go into any of the rooms because this was not their house and they would get into a lot of trouble. The mansion was just like the one in Scarface, the kids thought.
Isaac follows his older cousins lead, he’s third in a line of seven. They’ve been exploring every room in the mansion for the past forty minutes after realizing there isn’t much to do in a mansion actually. Most rooms are completely empty. The boys decide to go upstairs and explore the personal bedrooms of the inhabitants. They pick the biggest room. They walk into what seems like the patriarch’s room. As they look around it seems more like the quarters of a king or a general. There is a golden frame above the bed. In it is a picture of a man in uniform. He wears some form of red military coat with a red sash across his torso. The boys look into the drawers and cabinets for guns, gold, diamonds, anything interesting. In a drawer Isaac finds a sash, the sash. He picks it up and looks at the symbols on it. There is a symbol that looks like a bow and an arrow that form a cross. Before Isaac can wonder about the symbol, something else steals the room’s breath. In the closet, on a top shelve, there is a kingdom of skulls, and skeletons. In the center stands a skeleton covered in a white cloak and hood, with a scythe in hand. Lined up all around are skulls. White skulls, glass skulls, black skulls, golden skulls, silver skulls, crystal skulls, and diamond skulls with rainbow light glimmering in the corners. These were all carefully placed on top of a piece of velvet. To the cousins this was cool. For Isaac, this gave him a doomed feeling. As soon as they started grabbing them, he left in distress.
***
Are you sure? That’s what you saw? (Mother’s hand goes to her mouth, then both hands cover her mouth) Nononononono. Oh god (She struggles to recite the Our Father to herself. Water-falls from her burst eyelids)
Isaac tells his mother that he got scared, that’s all, it’s okay, he’s not even sure what that could mean, they should just talk to his godfather.
Isaac’s mother talks to her brother. He reassures her he doesn’t know what it is that Isaac saw but that it’s surely a misunderstanding and that he would talk to his friend.
***
Isaac comes home from school. He calls out for his mother and says he is starving. The TV in the living room is on in front of him. He turns right into the kitchen and opens the fridge. A shadow peaks out from the hall in between the living room and kitchen. If this were a frame in a movie the lighting would be yellow, the tones in the living room and kitchen would be cold, the emerald green blinds, shark blue fridge, tree bark brown carpet, and the floor down the hall would be a warm orange with a long shadow running down it. Down the hall would be Isaacs mother hanging from the ceiling, waiting to be found by her son.
Isaac shut himself in the bathroom on the opposite side of the hall. He couldn’t muster courage to step out. He couldn’t breathe orderly. He could not open his eyes without them filling of tears. He could almost hear a sound, like a thin needle almost piercing through dimensions. It was high pitched and like a final echo before fading. He heard his name and his mother calling it. Suddenly the roar and chaos in his mind went completely silent, still. The next thing he heard was footsteps. Then he saw a shadow outside the bathroom door. Whatever produced this shadow spoke to him. Isaac. Come out. Isaac. Come out. Like the raspy voice of an old man if he were learning to speak. Isaac pulled on his hair and spoke to himself out loud, to drown out his name being called. Isaac screamed until his lungs gave out and he still heard his name. Isaac spoke his own name and slowly synchronized it with the other voice until he broke into laughter, first to himself, then to the world, and his laugh roared, and like a thin needle pierced through dimensions.
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