Cursed Blessings

“Danielly! That shit I’m hearing about you sneaking out your window at night has got to stop now!”

rolling her eyes in silence a young “Dani” only but 13 years old takes a long breath and loud sigh.

”Why! are you always in my business? I’m not even doing anything bad!“ Dani screamed back.

“I'm not Arcelinda! I don’t even like boys because!”

before Dani could finish her sentence she was interrupted by a slight but heavy shove from her not much older sister Arcelinda,

“Linda” dark skinned long haired looking definitely more mature than her age, one could say she is her mother reborn, only 18 years old a single mother still in school and making it her duty to ruin every minute of Danis life chimed in with

“I’m only looking out for you “baby sis”.

knowing that extra little “baby sis“ would make this discussion more colorful, but before there was any escalation.

“STOP!”

Danis mother snapped and quickly put an end to the girls short lived bicker battle.

” i’m running late for my shift Linda pick up after you and the baby, and Dani you are to go nowhere. Do you hear me? finish your homework and stay home!

Best believe this is a discussion we’re going to have on my day off tomorrow”

DanI quickly snapped back with.

”but I’m not even doing anything wrong “

Looking over at Linda while she does the I’m watching you gesture with her two fingers.

”The countdown begins”, Dani whispered to herself while watching her mother head out the door,

Quickly Dani headed to her room closing and locking the door behind her self to prepare for her night,

“Baby sis!” Dani repeated in a mocking voice.

interrupted by three loud knocks at her bedroom door, followed by Linda saying through the door, “I am only looking out for you, baby sis, “we’re all we got” Shocked and annoyed by the timing. but still caught off guard, by the quote “we’re all we got” a little Ortega girl saying, And also an Ortega girl curse, Dani’s mother the youngest of six also single sisters was the first to put the pieces of the curse together, See the story goes Danis grandmother was quite the looker back in the day, A search through Daniellee‘s mothers, old, photo albums are the solid prof of that, “The Mexican Barbie” all the Tias called her, Julina Ortega was her name , you can see a little of her in all of the Ortega sisters, but Dani’s mother could pass for a reincarnation of grandma “JuJu”, a little nickname some of the granddaughters came up wit, that’s right grandma juju gave birth to only women who intern gave birth to only females, there is a total 13 Ortega granddaughter’s plus 4 great granddaughters and yes all Ortega women are single, cheating deportation, prison two suicides and even a disappearance is what has happened to the men of the Ortega women,

And then there was Abuelo……

Antonio Miguel Ortega

“El Tramposo” “El Desleal”

“The Donor” all the Tias have a nickname for him but grandma JuJu called him “El Diablo” an abusive unfaithful evil soul of a man who she happened to have six children with beautiful grandma JuJu, the story has it grandma Juju was the youngest of three sister, her mother Emilia or Grandma Emi, a very beautiful woman was often left alone with her daughters, Juju would describe her mother as naïve or green, or maybe she just wanted to be loved, Juju’s father described as a strong stern quiet man went by the name Ramon Rosalez, but that could all be made up see cause Ramon never spoke of his past or where he was from he was a mystery even to Emi, the man literally came and went as he pleased sometimes being gone months at a time, Emi on her death bed told a story about the last time she seen Ramon, “with a smile and a kiss he told me he loved me, he looked into my eyes as we made love like never before, we made love and then he was gone again, that same day hours after he was gone while hanging clothes on the clothes line an angry white woman approached me“ “you will never again know the love of a man!” and noticing the clothes in my hands were that of little girls she screamed out again “and no woman in your blood line will either“ and she spit in my face and ran off, Cursing our bloodline.

Now Antonio Ortega and Juju met at work at a large farm in northern Colorado, Antonio a Mexican American Who you would think had all the advantages most Mexican American teens have, like working a regular job at fast food or a tire shop chose to work on a farm with only migrant workers, he wasn’t even fluent in Spanish, his dark skin and ”Cholo like” swag would fool anyone,

unlike juju there isn’t photo albums filed with Hollywood type images of Antonio inside, and if there was at one point the angry tias made sure to get rid of that, all except one picture that happens to be in the possession of Dani, Found in one of her mothers photo albums, folded behind a picture of her beautiful grandmother was her tall, dark, handsome grandfather, they look like that beautiful picture perfect couple Mexican Barbie and Mexican ken, if Ken had that late 50s cholo swag, They look so great together Dani remembers What could make a picture perfect couple like Abuelo and juju cease to exist after six children well, apparently grandpa had his demons and many skeletons in the closet,

Turns out abuelo had a whole other family of skeletons hiding in his closet,

Dani shakes her thoughts bangs back louder on the door and screams back, “worry bout your own chil, because her daddy doesn’t seem to“ Total regret, and dread as those words left Danis mouth, after all it wasn’t “Tashis” fault her mother and Dani can’t stand each other, Dani Opened her mouth, wanting to apologize, but nothing came out as she heard Linda slowly walking away from the door And down the hallway, Dani reached for the door handle to apologize But never opened the door, she just whispered “we’re all we got”,

The silence was then broken by a knock at Dani’s window, “Has to be Amy” Dani said as she walked over to take a peek, Pulling the blinds, expecting to see her goofy Besty but was taken back because there was no one there, just the backyard and darkness, “Little bitch” Danny whispers imagining it was Amy passing by, deciding to do a quick run by knock at danis window, before heading to “The Spot”, If there’s one thing, these young ladies, like doing thats scaring each other, Amy and Dani both being barely 15, had already had a reputation in their school, hell that reputation bled over everywhere they went, And it wasn’t that of a promiscuous girl but of those girls you just don’t want to fuck with,

allways in black, sometimes they look Chola, sometimes prep, a lot of times rocker, but always always in black, thus Earning the nickname “brujas“ by classmates the girls thought it was cute, and often fucked with their classmate, and Amy’s stick up her but white step sister “Marie”, asides from the clothing and attitude, their was of course the fact that both girls did a little juvenile time in mountain view Junvinile facility for assault on Amy’s mothers boyfriend, the girls don’t really talk about it much, and sometimes the small town and Tias whisper about it,

but it’s only whispered about, their bond is so tight Amy’s even adopted saying “we’re all we got” sisters from other misters they would jokingly say,

“Couldn’t be Amy” Dani said to herself, her dad and stepmother were definitely still awake, it’s barely 10:27pm, Dani took a deep breath and made her way to her TV it was a television vcr combo, something her mother picked up from a yard sale, remembering that she set timer so she could record “headbangers ball” Riki was interviewing ”Suicidal“ and Dani didn’t want to miss a second, 20 minutes in and numerous ”pause and unpause moments, during what felt like 100 commercial breaks,

lite tappings start coming from Dani’s window, and Amy faintly said,

“itsa me !” In the worst Mario brother voice ever, Dani grabbed her sweater and made her way to her window, just another normal night headed to “The Spot”

“THE SPOT“

It was a cozy little wooded area maybe a mile south of the neighborhood, once while exploring the girls stumbled upon it, now when I say exploringi mean a little teenage escape, sometimes they have a smoke or maybes sip of tequila Amy occasionally would bring a flask that she lifted off her stepdad, tequila or sometimes Rum, a sence of peace falls over them at The spot, an old solid oak tree that had fallen was the perfect spot the two would sit and just talk for hours at times it seemed as if Amy didn’t want to leave, Dani always figured it was because her parents had recently divorced, but to keep their shared custody easier for the both of them they literally lived blocks away from each other, Amy was always an outspoken couragous young lady who Dani definitely looked up to, but since their little stay in juvenile she kinda lost her lite, then their was the whole incident with her stepfather, Dani never built up the courage to ask exactly what happened, but Dani was sure it was sexual abuse, seeing her best friend/sister crying hysterically in the rain standing outside of her bedroom window with blood between her legs , Dani saw red, without hesitation Dani exited out her window and into Amy’s arms, scared herself she frantically asked Amy, “What happened!”

“Luis!” Amy screamed, the girls held each other crying in the rain for what seemed like an eternity, and when the rain stopped, the girls stopped crying, as if they were both one , they both headed out the back gate and towards Amy’s mothers house as if in some kind of trance, of course the front door was closed and locked, so Dani pounded and kicked at the door till Luis opened,

and then the girls were just on him, punching and scratching and kicking him, at one point he grabbed ahold of Dani and she bit him, and it wasn’t no baby nibble, Dani actually took a chunk of skin out and spit it onto the floor next to him as he rolled around gripping his bite wound on his wrist, and like the piece of shit coward he is Luis got to his feet and ran, only for him to trip over his own feet, falling face first onto the street and knocking out five of his front teeth.

of course like they’ve always been there the cops showed Dani and Amy were quickly on their feet and ran into the woods, Dani glanced quickly over her shoulder and noticed that they weren’t even being followed, I guess two screaming and crying teenager, one with blood on her crotch area kinda painted a picture for the police, but Dani wasn’t gonna chance it, pure adrenaline had both girls going, and their focus was “The spot” their safe place there the girls can catch up and get thei stories straight, once at the fallen oak Dani fell to her knees frantic and the only thing that could come out of her mouth was a series of “oh my god! Oh my god!oh my god! While Amy paced back and forth, getting to her feet Dani asked “What the fuck happed dude! What happened to you!? Amy snapped back with a stern “No!” Dani again “Amy what happened!?”, and Amy grabbed Dani by the shoulders and said in a calm tone “DanI isn’t it obvious?“ and the girls fell silent just staring deeply into each other’s eyes, the rain started to pick up again and the girls sought shelter under the fallen oak, freezing and hugging as the rain faded, out the corner of Amy’s eye she noticed a woman in a white gown crawling face down from a tree, shaking Dani to get her attention both girls watched in fear an silence as this woman crawled snake like threw the grass and then up on her feet, moving her hair from her face, she was beautiful long dark hair that she quickly pulled back and braided, the rain then stopped and the moon shined directly on her face as if it was meant to, she stretched her arms upward as if giving thanks, and the silence was broken by the sound of Amy’s mother screaming her name, in a flash like a cat the woman crawled right back up the tree, again Amy’s mother called out, and then Dani’s mother, still frozen in silence by what the girls just witnessed they watched as both mothers and two policemen walked past the fallen oak without even seeing them, it wasn’t until the group circled around and came back that Amy finally spoke up and said “mommy“ and immediately flashlights were shined in their direction , Dani’s mother Izzy got to them first saying to both girls, “don’t say anything yet! I’m proud of y’all!” Followed by Amy’s mother saying “but why? we could’ve talked” but before she could finish Izzy cut her off with another “proud of y’all girls!” While the police pushed through and placed both girls under arrest for assault, and as them handcuffs clicked the tree the woman crawled out of shook at the top getting everyone’s attention and a large owl flew towards them taking a quick swipe at everyone and then disappearing into the night.

Full Moon

Just like the night the girls were arrested, the moon was full and beautiful, the smell of summer and weed was in the air, it was 10:55 on a Friday night but you can still hear the sounds of the neighborhood, baby’s crying cats fighting the occasional thump thump thump, coming out the trunk of a passing car, not a cell phone in sigh, the girls took their time walking as they contemplated a quick stop at the 7-11, “a small basket of nachos do sound delicious” Amy said as if reading Dani’s mind, and they quietly detoured towards to the popular spot, not even one fricken foot in the door and they were met with ”brujas!” From a small group of friends from school who were all grouped up next to the mortal kombat game, Amy as usual in her happy go lucky style made her way towards the group while Dani marched straight to the nachos, Dani had a good rather unusual way of dishing out her nachos, while trying to focus on her little routine she was distracted by a glow coming out of the corner of her eye, through the window and across the street It was her!!! making eye contact for what seemed like an eternity Dani looked away for a slight moment loosing grip on her nachos and she was gone, only the sound of chips and chili cheese crashing onto the floor brought Dani back to eart, a roar of clapping and cheering came from the friends in the game room, as Dani stormed out the 7-11 to try and make sense of what she seen, immediately Amy came running behind asking what was going on with her, shaking and trying to get the words out with tears in her eyes Dani said ”It was her!” Before Amy could respond Michael a school friend who followed Amy out Asked “Who?!” But the girls huddleing together quickly walked away…..

This project is titled:

Cursed Blessings

2661 word count

Genre: Traditional folklor/Horror

Age range Teen to Adult

Author: Raymond Angelo Rosalez

my project is inspired by every type of woman in my life, their strengths and their weaknesses their abilities to rise and fall and their strong rolls in breaking generational curses, my targeted audience is my Latino community but I feel with time this project will evolve into more of a “class” community being that it takes place in the 90s.

My Bio

im a Hispanic male grew up in a small town in northern Colorado, I love art, poetry and history