I decided that I liked school. I did not get to play with other kids my age before I went to school. My brother would play with me, but he was too good at everything, and I could never win any games. Now that I was in school, I made lots of friends and played with them every day except on weekends.

  I spent a lot of time at school playing with my new friends, but I also tried extra hard to do a good job at everything my teacher asked me to do. Whenever she told the class to line up, I always tried to be the first in the line. Whenever she gave us worksheets to do, I tried my hardest to do my best. Whenever she told us to draw a pretty picture, I would make the best picture in the whole class. She never told me it was the best picture; she would just say it was really pretty, but I could tell she thought it was the best because she smiled the most when I gave her my picture to keep.

  I was trying to be the best at school, so it didn't make any sense that Grandma and Mama were getting upset more often. I asked Carlos what was making them so upset all the time. He said there are lots of bad things happening in our city. If bad things happen near you, it is easy to get extra afraid.

  Mama told me I just needed to keep smiling and everything would be ok. The bad day came, though. I could not stay happy that day.

  That day, Carlos and I went to school as usual. I got to learn about the planets today, and it was so cool. I wanted to be the first person to ever go to Jupiter. I wanted to go to Jupiter because it was so colorful, and I loved color so much.

  Carlos had picked me up from my class like normal, and we had walked home together. It wasn't far, so we got to walk, while lots of other kids had to wait for their parents to pick them up from school. The walk home was only a couple of blocks, but the streets were extra quiet. I did not see anyone else outside, not even the friendly aunty who has a stall selling juice down the street from our house, who will sometimes give us candy if she is not busy with a customer. Grandma was sitting in her favorite chair, like always, when we got home. Mama had to work late, like most days. So she was not home until after bedtime.

  I was supposed to do a worksheet my teacher gave me about what my favorite planet was and why, but I wanted to play. My friends at school taught me a new game while we played outside during recess. I keep asking Carlos to play with me over and over. I knew if I asked enough times in a row, he would play with me, but sometimes he was angry about it. He said it was because I was being annoying on purpose, but it did not matter because he started playing the game called tag with me. He said he already knew how to play, but it wasn't fun with only two people, so he never taught me.

  I was It, and I was trying to tag Carlos over the couch when there was a super loud bang that came from the door. I was once walking down the street when two cars crashed into each other right in front of us. It sounded just as loud as that, but we were inside, so it felt even louder. It was so loud I got scared and ran over to Grandma. Carlos came running after me, so I knew it wasn't just me who was scared of the sound.

  We had a metal cage around our front door because it was always good to stay extra safe. Mama said that even if you are safe, it is never bad to be even safer, and that is why we always made sure to close the cage door behind us before we opened the house door.

  The sound came from the cage in front of our door. After the bang, there was a new sound. It sounded like a bunch of angry men were shouting right outside our house. I did not know what they wanted, but they were using a bunch of the nono words that Mama had told me never to use. I knew they were bad men because they were using bad words like that, and were trying to get into our house without asking.

  Grandma grabbed both Carlos's and my hands. She grabbed my hand so hard it hurt. I did not know that she was that strong. She pulled us to her and looked at us one at a time. She started with me. She let go of our hands and put both hands on either side of my head, and looked at me in the eyes with a scary face on.

  “Jaun, I need you to go to your special hiding space. I know you don’t like hiding in there, but this is the most important thing. I need you to keep quiet and hide in there until I tell you itis safe to come out. You can’t make any sounds, no matter what happens. Promise me.”

  I could see Grandma was scared too, just like Carlos and me. I knew this was the most important thing.

  “I Promise Grandma”

  She smiled with tears in her eyes.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “I love you more than anything in the world.”

  Grandma leaned forward and kissed me on both my cheeks, then my forehead, then pushed me towards the kitchen. I knew it was time to get into my super-secret drill-hiding space. I ran to open up the grate in the wall of the kitchen as Grandma grabbed Carlos the same way she grabbed me. I could still hear what she said while I was sliding myself feet first into the hole in the wall.

  “You are my precious big boy. I know I don’t even need to tell you to look after your brother, because you always have and always will. They are going to come into the house. They are not here for me; they are here for you and your brother. If you hide long enough and stay quiet enough, they will never find you.

  I love you so much. I will always love you, no matter what happens, just remember that.”

  After that, I got all the way into my hole and could hear my brother running over to close the grate in the wall to keep me hidden. He looked at me through the gaps in the grate and brought his finger up to his mouth. Then he disappeared from my sight as he went to hide himself.

  The shouting outside had stopped, and was replaced by an ear-hurting grinding sound. It was like someone was trying to grind our cage to pieces. I tried to put my hands over my ears, but my hole was so small I could not put my arms down to cover them. I listened to the grinding for a long time until I heard more shouting and the roar of a big car. It felt like our whole house shook, and I was scared I would get smashed in my hole. Then there was a different grinding sound, moving away from our home. It was like when I would find a metal stick and scrape the road behind me as we walked places.

  I was glad the grinding sound was over and hoped everything was finally over. It was only quiet for a second when there was another big boom from the door, and the door crashed open. The shouting men were so much louder when they came into the house. I could finally hear everything they were saying. I wish they would just go away. The things they shouted were so bad.

  “Old hag, get the fuck out of your shitty chair and bring us to the kids. We will let you rot away in this fucking house if you just show us where they are. If not, things will get a lot worse for you.”

  I heard Grandma talking back to the angry man who was shouting.

  “Who do you think you are coming into my house like this. The kids are not here. You are going to get locked up for the rest of your life for what you” Smack.

  “Shut the FUCK UP, Ugly Witch. Who do you think you are to talk to me like that? I am going to be the KING of this town.”

  I heard Grandma shout in pain after the bad man had hit her. I had to put my hand over my mouth, so I didn’t make a sound.

  Grandma started shouting right back at him.

  “You might have been untouchable until now, Domingo, but this is going too far. The Police can not turn a blind eye to something so blatant as ripping the door off my house and driving it down the road. There will be countless witnesses to what is happening.”

  The bad man, Domingo, laughed when she said this.

  “HAAHAHA, Things are changing fast. Once I get the Infinity System, no one is going to do shit to me. I will have all the power.

  Last chance, Pile of Bones. Our scouts saw the kids coming home, so we know they are here. We have had eyes on the entrance since then; they have not left. You can tell us where they are now, or we can tear this whole place apart and find them anyway, without your help.”

  Grandma started shouting bad words, herself.

  “Fuck you, Domingo. You have always been a petty little SHIT who thinks they deserve more than you have because your Mommy never loved you. You Don’t” BANG

  There was a super loud bang, and I couldn't hear for a second as my ears were yelling at me. I tried to look through the grate to figure out what had happened. I saw some boots moving around in the other room. The bad men were still in our house. Once theboots moved out of the way, I saw Grandma lying on the ground.

  She wasn't looking at me, but I could see something was wrong with her face. Her face wasn't smiling; it was super angry, but it didn't change at all. One of her eyes was looking straight in front of her, even though she was lying on the ground. I didn’t want to look at the other eye. It was wrong. It was leaking blood, and it looked like Grandma was more hurt than I had ever been in my life. There was so much blood leaking out of where her eye used to be. Didn’t want to see anymore.

  I closed my eyes, wanting to curl up and cry, but I could not move. I could still see Grandma when I closed my eyes. She was just silently staring at nothing with one eye. There was no other eye. It was just a hole of red that kept getting bigger and bigger. I wanted to look away as the hole in Grandma’s head got so big it seemed like it was going to swallow me up, but my eyes were already closed.

  I was so scared, I wanted Mama, I wanted Grandma. I didn’t want scary Grandma anymore, I wanted nice grandma who loved me and told me stories about the ancestors.

  I tried to be quiet; I knew I needed to be silent. I could hear the men smashing things around the house as they looked for Carlos and me, but I was so scared, and even though I held my hand over my mouth, I couldn’t help but start crying.

  I was still being as quiet as I could. I tried to stop the bad men from hearing me, but suddenly one of the men shouted.

  “Quiet, Shitholes, I think I hear something.”

  I held my breath as the whole house went silent.