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Novelo Rectangle

The girl in the photo on her wall blinked. Olivia leans in for a closer look at the girl in the framed photo she had just stolen at a yard sale. It is a fairly nice photo of a teen aged girl dressed all Little House on the Prairie standing in a field of wild flowers with an old fashioned barn and house in the background. Sitting on the edge of the bed with a sigh Olivia imagines how it would be to live in the world shown in that ancient television show. A place where she wouldn’t get beaten after her parents finished with their Friday night fights. A place where she didn’t have to take care of her little sister and brother. A place where she didn’t go to bed hungry because she made sure the twins were fed with what little bit of food she was able to shoplift. Olivia shakes her head as she stares at the photo, did the girl move? It’s hard to tell with the memory and vision problems that started when her stepfather Mikey, a little man with big fists, punched her in the back of the head three days ago. She blinks several times at the photo, the blonde girl looks like she is closer to the edge of picture than she was. As she starts reaching towards the glass of the picture frame Jack and Jill slip quietly into the room they all share. Jill notices the framed photo first, “Who tha ‘Livya? She purdy.” “I don’t know Jilly, it’s just something I found while looking for food today.” Jack looks hopefully at his diminutive older sister, “We get food?” Olivia ruffles Jack’s fine black hair before taking three beef sticks, and three candy bars from her purse, “We sure do Jacky. We can look at the new picture as we eat too.” As the children start to eat Olivia slumps and collapses to the floor. The twins stare at her in confusion. Jill starts screaming while Jack starts to cry. Their mother Janice runs in, “Hush child...” Spotting her oldest daughter on the floor her words trail off. Olivia slowly eats her beef stick, savoring the grease that oozes out as she chews. Jill excitedly points at the photo, “’Livya, she moved!” Leaning closer Olivia stares at the girl in the photo, the girl is motioning for Olivia to come closer. Janice shakes her daughter trying to wake her up, to no avail. Worried about her child she calls 911 on her cell phone. The dispatcher gets the information and informs Janice the paramedics are on their way. Olivia puts her nose almost to the glass, she can barely hear the blonde girl yelling, “Come and join me.” Olivia asks, “How? How can I join you in a picture? How are you moving?” Hearing the sirens turning onto her street Janice waddles down the stairs, her belly distended by yet another pregnancy. As she is unlocking the door Mikey, wearing nothing but soiled boxers, stops her, “What the fuck is all this shit bitch?” The girl yells back, “Look on the back of the frame.” turning the frame around Olivia sees a tiny corner of a sheet of paper sticking out from under the backer. Carefully removing the backer she takes out the paper. Janice’s anger and worry for her child becomes greater than her fear of Mikey, shoving him away she screeches, “My baby girl is hurt and needs an ambulance!” Turning she unlocks the door as the paramedic loudly knocks. Following the direction she carefully disassembles the picture frame, lays out the pieces, with the picture in the center, when she shatters the glass a portal to the field of wild flowers appears. Stepping to the side Janice tells the paramedic she found Olivia passed out upstairs, and motions them up the stairwell. Two of the paramedics follow the sound of Jack’s crying into the bedroom while the third one questions Janice. Taking the twins by their hands Olivia leads them through the portal. The blonde girl rushes up and embraces Olivia, “Hi, I’m Melissa, but you can call me Missy, it’s what all my friends call me. What are your names?” The medics waste no time examining Olivia, due to her labored breathing a paramedic places an oxygen mask on her face. Hearing the EMTs entering the house, one of the paramedics yells down for a backboard. Letting go of the hands of the twins Olivia returns the embrace, “I am Olivia, these two are my brother Jack, and my sister Jill; they are twins and mother had a weird sense of humor.” As one of the EMTs rushes up the stairs with the backboard, her partner gets the gurney ready to transport Olivia to the hospital. The trio gets Olivia strapped to the backboard, and down the stairs to the gurney. The twins follow their big sister down the stairs. “You are just in time, mother should have supper done any time now.” After giving the twins a quick hug Missy leads the siblings to the rustic cabin, wisps of smoke issue from the chimney. Janice loads the twins into her beat up old Chevy, and follows the ambulance to the hospital, leaving Mikey to finish dealing with the paramedics. She finds a parking spot and rushes into the ER. In the house Missy’s mother, and her two older sisters are setting supper on the table as the men come in from the fields they had been plowing. Missy leads her new friends to a basin so they can wash up for supper. As the EMTs and a nurse rush Olivia into an examination room her breathing becomes even more labored. With a gasp she lets out one final exhale. The paramedics start CPR while the nurse calls a code blue. Dinner consisted of fried chicken, biscuits, and roasted vegetables. Olivia and the twins ate their fill for the first time in years. Other than asking the trio their names Missy’s mother, Elzabet, let the children be. A nurse rushes to Janice in the waiting room and informs her that Olivia has stopped breathing, and asks if she wants them to try and resuscitate her daughter. Elzabet has Missy help serve the warm apple pie, Olivia tries to get her siblings to slow down and enjoy the pie, they completely ignore her and make a mess of their faces. With tears streaming down her cheeks Janice tells the nurse in a choked voice, “Save my baby, please save my baby.” The doctors work on Olivia for another thirty minutes before the resident stops and shuts off the heart rate monitor, “She’s not coming back.” With tears in her eyes the nurse pulls the sheet up over Olivia’s face.

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Free at Last

KenAlvarez1967

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Free at Last

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Kenneth Alvarez

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