Girl on Fire

It’s not easy to hit the high note but she still tries. From the backseat she fills up her lungs and becomes a one performer choir. The chorus comes and with full confidence pronounces, “this girl is on fire!” He voice breaks at the top of the line but she’s unperturbed and I stay quiet and amused. 
Then I remember how I too enjoyed singing in the car but I did not have the confidence to do it with anyone around. I sang in my room with the doors closed or in my car with the windows up. 
I live vicariously through her and enjoy the concert.

The Fastest Torres

Heading east and 37 feet past the dogie water fountain on the Royal Oaks trail a boy ran by a middle aged man. Huffing and puffing the stocky forty-something thought he could and thought he could catch up with the gazelle like kiddo to no avail. 
It could have been the extra 10 pounds, the aching knees, the mid-day heat or the heart palpitations that kept him from matching strides. In any case the baton has officially been passed and a new

A walk a near mile in the Cold

And so I told them this morning…From near a top North Eastman Avenue to Belvedere Junior High down below is a mile long walk that I made each and every day no matter how cold the morning or how East LA hot the afternoon. I never ever once complained and I never made my parents late.

PS: The Administrative Team here at Casa Torres also serving as council to the mentioned patriarch cannot confirm the voracity of the claims the aforementioned is making. Mr. Torres has been hereby warned about his over seasoning of facts as it pertains to lecturing his offspring on cold mornings. We (the Administrative Team) apologize to any and all who may have been miffed by Mr. Torres

Locked Out of Heaven

The kid sank deeper into the back seat with worry. At the wheel, the father was making wild gestures with his face and the most rapid articulations with his arms. There was sincere pleading from the concerned tyke but they were being ignored. The other more experienced kid in the passenger seat sat in resolved silence. “This will pass like it always does” he muttered to himself. Finally at the drop off the younger kiddo fumbled fast to unlock the backdoor and escape to her campus and away from the mad-energy. 
To outsiders, once the car door opened the deafening beat of Bruno Mar’s Locked Out of Heaven wailed out and the dad inside kept on Car-Dancing with Muppet like precision. 
The child still within the vehicle and the one that had escaped exchanged glances…first a glare then pity.

I Never

I never as a kid…wore my pajamas to school, have a class for just puzzles, taken out of school for In-N-Out hamburgers w/mates, have Subway subs with my teacher at lunch time, have Santa as a super-close friend of the family, walked in a parade with my school, have a DJ play tunes during my lunch hour…had my dad record all his observations for me to read and roll my eyes at years later.