Crossing

I was only six years old, and already saw the world was so cold. I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't think it was wrong. I came into this country doing no harm. 

Though I spent three days and nights without my mom. I had no worries I was with my aunt and cousins. Ten of us, sharing one room and going from motel to motel each night. Then came a day, one day where my aunt took me with a man, I was taken to a house. I was alone. There was a lady with a kid. I was with a stranger for two nights. 

That lady told me I'm no longer me, I'm someone else named Mixtri. She took me to a store that day and made me cover my face with a hat, she handed me to someone else with my face still covered. The next day I woke up in a new house, they fed me and then asked my name. I kept quiet. She said I couldn’t eat or do anything until I learned my name. She locked me in a room crying my eyes out.She would spank me until I got it right. I was alone for three more nights.  

The last night she took me away, we drove and drove for hours. Then we stopped and she told me to close my eyes and sleep. But what kid would sleep, when they are with a stranger driving somewhere they’ve never seen before. She said if someone asks my name to give the fake name and if I didn't I would never see my mom again. I hid my eyes under the seatbelt, terrified it was late at night we stopped at a toll. Then came a man next to the car, wearing a green uniform , big, tall, light brown hair, and blue eyes. He spoke with a heavy accent. He let us go through not questioning who I was. 

We drove farther and longer. We came to a small blue house in the middle of the night. I was left with another lady. She took me to a room and put me to sleep in a bed. When I woke up she said "Do you know where you are?" I replied "Mexico". She said "No your in California in the United States!" I didn’t know what was so important about it. She fed me and let me play with her kids. I call came in and she asked me what was my name I said "Mixtri" then she said "What is your real name?" I kept saying Mixtri. She handed me the phone saying there's someone that wants to talk to me. My aunt was on the other line, and I was so happy to hear her voice, she told me I don’t have to pretend I'm someone else, that I'm safe. I asked about my mom and she didn’t answer. She called for three more days and I kept asking about my mom and I would get the same reply every time, "She's not here".  

Thirteen days with out my mom and the last day she showed up, she came where I was at. She came with my cousins and I was so happy to see her. My mom thanked the lady for taking good care of me and we left. We had a long drive and when I woke up I was in Iowa. It was 5 in the morning and we got off and went inside a big white house.  

Years passed by and soon I understood what I was.  

I had to keep quiet of what me and my mom where.  

Now every morning I wake up with fear, 

Fear that one day I will come home and my mom wont be there. 

Fear that one day my sister will be taken away to a foster home.  

Fear that will always live inside me.