Read Online Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francesco X Stork - Free Book Online Page A

flipped slowly through the pages. The pages of the diary were lined, and words crowded every line for forty or so pages. There were no dates on any of the pages, but he knew that their father had given her the diary when she was fifteen. Those forty pages accounted for the last five years of her life.
    He hesitated for a few seconds and turned slowly to the last pages. Three pages from the end, he saw the name “Bobby” and stopped. He read:
I met a boy his name is Bobby. He’s not like the other boys. He says he wants to take me out in his truck.
    He continued reading the various entries.
    Bobby bought me a turcoise ring. I love Bobby. He told me he loves me also. He says we need to keep it a secret that welove each other on account he’s older. But I told him that don’t make no diference.
    I want tell Julieta about Bobby. I want Bobby and me and Julieta maybe go to the show with her and she can get a date also. But he say no. We needs to be a secret. I ask him if maybe he was embarased to be seen with me cause of my disbelity. He says no he just shy thats all.
    I told Bobby today I want to wait before we do everything. He got mad at me. He thinks I do it with other boys and not him. I told him I don’t. I was waiting for my true love to come forever. I believe he is the one. My one and only. I want Bobby to feel the same way. I hope he understands why I wait.
    I want Bobby to meet Pancho. Bobby says next week. I hope Pancho likes him. I think if I marry Bobby Pancho can work in construkshun with Bobby. After Pancho fineshes high school. Papa I miss you. I wish you were here to meet Bobby also. Can you believe someone loves your Rosa?
    Then he read the last entry.
    Bobby says his leaving me. He says his goin back to albuqerqe and wont come back. He wants to break up because he says his to old to play games. He says I’m not fun. I don’t even drink or nothing. He thought I was a party girl when hefirst met me cause I was always happy all the time and he heard I like to have fun. I tol him I love him. He told me prove it if I did. I said I would. I say I don’t want to lose him. Tomorrow he will take me to a place where we can just have fun and I can show him if I truly love him. After that he will come meet Pancho. If I love him why am I afraid.
    In all the years that he lived with his sister, he had never seen anything more than a few words written by her. When he saw her scribbling in her diary, he thought she was putting down gibberish, nothing that would make any sense to anyone else. But here she was, in her own words, surprising him, showing him a side of her he never saw because he never cared enough to see.
    He closed the diary and locked it again with the tiny key. He put his right hand on top of it the way he saw people on TV put their hands on Bibles when they swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This was the truth he swore: That no matter what happened, no matter what anyone said or pleaded, at the right time, he would honor his sister’s life by finding the man who hurt her and making him pay for the wrong done to her.

CHAPTER 10
    I t rained before dawn. The rainstorm pelted the earth furiously for an hour and then stopped. Pancho walked out to the punching bag before anyone else was up. Rainwater had seeped in and tripled the weight of the bag, but the branch from which it hung had not bent. He began to hit the bag slowly. To work properly, a bag should be light enough to swing back and forth so that the boxer must adjust his feet in response to the movement. This bag did not budge. It stolidly absorbed Pancho’s hardest punches. Thud. Thud. Thud-thud. Thud. Pancho found a rhythm and stayed with it. After a few minutes, he felt sweat roll down his forehead. He increased the tempo. Thud-thud-thud. Thud-thud-thud. His feet slid on the wet ground. The scars on his knuckles opened and began to bleed, staining the green canvas. Faster rhythm: Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.