Corona Arts and Sciences Academy

Adriana is a teenager who has a really good relationship with her dad.   Over the years, she and her siblings were always following Arnulfo’s rules and working. Adriana would always hang out with her eldest brother. One day when Adriana and Juan were working Adriana wanted to go play basketball with her friends. 

 

“Hey can you cover up for me so I can go play basketball with my friends, it will only be for some time”.  Adriana  asked

 

“Yeah sure but go now before Dad comes back,” says Juan.

 

“Ok, do you know when Dad is coming back?” As Adriana is curious.

 

“Dad is coming back at 5:30 and right now it is 2 pm,” Juan replies.

 

As he turns back to go see if Adriana is gone, Adriana has already left, leaving him speechless. Adriana is on her way to school. She runs as fast as she can so she will have extra time to eat, once she arrives. She walks through the streets with a bunch of rocks making her almost get stuck. They would always be open for basketball practice. She gets to the school and smells the food from the cafeteria. Adriana inhales the fresh food. 

 

“Oh my god, the food smells so good.” 

 

As her stomach growls, she goes to the cafeteria with her friends and has lunch there. A few minutes went by and she got ready to play basketball with her friends. Time went so fast she didn’t notice it was turning dark. She runs back to work with her brother. As she arrives she is breathing for a lot of air. 

 

“HEY! I’m Back.”

 

”Hey Adriana, Dad is at the hospital with Mom because he wasn’t feeling well.” Her brother says. Adriana gets a little worried for her dad and hopes nothing is wrong. 

    

“Adriana just letting you know to not tell the others where dad is,” says Juan.

 

“But why?” As Adriana is confused about it. 

 

“Because they ask questions about it and you know how annoying they are   when they ask questions.”  

 

“Do we tell Our older sister about it?” 

 

“No she is in Spain right now she won’t even care about dad." 

 

“Ok” Adriana replies.  

 

Adriana’s parents come home at midnight and they are upset. Adriana is aware, and overhears their conversations while studying for her upcoming exams. She wakes up Juan but not the others. They both overhear that their father was diagnosed with cancer. As their hearts sank hearing that, they both couldn’t imagine this. They both slap each other thinking this was all a dream but it wasn’t. When the conversation ended, Adriana and Juan were tearing up silently because they can’t imagine their dad going through this.  They decided to go back to sleep. Adriana takes her slippers off and covers herself with her blanket. Few minutes went by, and she wasn’t able to sleep. She kept thinking about the conversation they overheard. It was too much to overthink.

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Adriana wakes up in the morning and they completely forgot what had happened last night. Adriana’s dad calls them to come to the kitchen to announce something. 

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“Kids, I was at the hospital yesterday because my stomach was hurting really bad. The doctor took some tests on me and told me that I was diagnosed with cancer,” says Arnulfo.

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The kids were in complete shock except for Adriana and Juan because they overheard it, although it still broke their hearts. The kids were really upset for their dad that they all gave him a hug to have this as a memory. The eldest kids like Adriana and Juan would work hard to get their father the medicine that their dad needs for the cancer to not spread. Some years went by and thankfully the cancer had not spread and it had been the same.

        

 

At 17, Adriana was secretly dating a guy named Anibal. They have known each other since they were little. Adriana and Anibal went on a date at night and had their first kiss. Adriana didn’t like keeping secrets from her family but she didn’t want to get in trouble so kept it a secret for a long time.  A few months later. Adriana starts to notice that her father was not given the right medication. She soon questions about it to her dad. ​

 

“Hey, dad, are these your medications because they are usually these other pills,”says Adriana.

 

“Don’t worry about the doctors giving them to me,” said her dad.  

 

Some time later she sees that her dad wasn’t acting normal and she notices over the days that her dad has become skinnier, weak and would have a bad cold.

 

“Adriana, I’m going to the hospital Solca and be at my aunt's house overnight. You are in charge of the kids when your mom comes back.” 

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He stays over at his aunt's and leaves the next day to go home. 

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On January 24th 2008, Arnulfo is leaving to go on a taxi. His neighbors started questioning him if he was ok because he looked extremely ill. All he would say was “I’m fine, I’m fine.” 

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As he is getting inside the taxi he arrives home at 3:31 pm. His Family welcomes him home and asks if he is all right. 

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“I’m not ok. I’m gonna rest in my bed,” says Afrulfo.

 

Arnulfo is resting in his bed. He asks for his medicine and some soda. Adriana and her siblings go grab his medicine and soda and give it to him. My mom stays with them and gets really worried knowing that it will be his last day to stop suffering with his illness. As Adriana held his hand she felt weakness in his hands and they were slowly getting cold. As soon as she realizes that he has died in his bed next to his soda. She started to tear up and cry so much that she called her siblings to come to the room. They all started to cry knowing how much he loved them and always made sure they would be in good condition. Adriana's mom hears them crying while she was talking to her neighbor but she thought nothing about it and kept talking to her neighbor. The siblings were crying so much that they even saw him open his eyes again to his kids one last time. As his eyes rolled back to pitch white. They all knew that he was now gone forever. The mom finally comes in and complains why they are crying so much and they all say.

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“Papa is gone forever. That's why I'm crying."

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The mom comes in and sees her dead husband in the bed next to his soda. She burst out crying because she had lost his last moments seeing him come back. They call the priest and they take Arnulfo to his coffin and pray for him to be a free spirit watching his family.

 

Going through this heartbreaking moment for Adriana and the family, she will for sure know that holding his hand before he died must have been the most memorable thing that had ever happened to her and her siblings. Although he is gone, they will now know he is in a better place and Arnuflo will always be placed in their heart forever.