Célia Flóres
8 years old
“Célia,despierta!”My Mamá called out-I was in the middle of a grande dream. The kind you would never remember when you woke up, but you’d chase the feeling of it all day. By morning, the plot was entirely gone, but you still missed it. You could ask your mind to bring it back to you again, but it was likely so far out of reach that you couldn’t even recall its idea anymore, and once a dream was lost, it was gone forever.
Only the promise of another sleep could reunite you.
The heat of the fire was urging me to wake. At the same time, the smoke promised to lull me back to unconsciousness as the flames engulfed my second-story bedroom in our family villa, the entirety of the room surrendering to the volatile embers as they danced up the walls.
“I don’t know what to do, Rafa! Cézar! Ayudame!” I could hear my Mamá’s frantic panic, but the smoke was making me dizzy and filling my lungs until all I could do was cough. Before I could open my eyes, I choked on the headiness of the smoke. I tried to reach for my little sister Carolina in the bed next to me but felt nothing.
“Cézar and I will hold them while we jump, the floor will give out any second now. You must trust me, Amor.”
I felt the bed shift under me and suddenly I was being rolled into the blankets.
“Papá, please! I can’t breathe!” I shouted through the layers of fabric between us.
I heard Carolina screaming and then suddenly, the ground below me was gone and all I could feel was the air being pulled from my insides as my body hit the ground. Was I outside? I tried to roll but I was tangled and wrapped in this ball of blankets I couldn’t force myself out of. Everything was caving in, and I couldn’t breathe! The stale smoke and the darkness of the makeshift cocoon were setting my heart off like a beating drum, “Papá! I CAN’T BREATHE!” I screamed again.
I finally heard Carolina crying. She couldn’t have been far from me - she was only six. She was too little to understand what was happening.
I didn’t understand what was happening.
“Célia respira fundo-breathe deep Mija.” I heard my Papá’s voice and felt the pressure of his strong hands gripping the blankets surrounding me. Finally, the panic eased its way out of my body, and I sucked the air through my mouth. I stuttered as it filled my lungs and a sob poured out of me uncontrollably as the oxygen left my body again. “What is happening Papá?”
“We must leave Mexico mi amor, right now. Our family is in grave danger.”