nobody said it was easy

february 2029
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(Gonzales Household Profile)
Cesar Gonzales (38 years), Ella Carver (16 years), Marisol, Manuel (11 years)

They say things about her sister, things that they don’t say about Ella, like how smart Marisol is, and how well-spoken. Adults have already spoken with Mari about great things like higher education and careers. The twins didn’t remember their Mom, but Manny had always been sensitive to the loss, while Mari had been bold enough to say she was glad to not have been raised in poverty by an alcoholic.

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expectations

may 2025
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(Gonzales Household Profile)
Cesar Gonzales (34 years), Ella Carver (13 years), Manuel Carver (7 years), Marisol Carver (7 years)

She was being forced to see a counselor, the state decided it would help her find an inner happiness, or at minimum a way to deal with the rotten hand she had been dealt. But her counselor was a young, recent college grad that grew up the daughter of a Mayor, in the most expensive neighborhood in the entire county.

broken pieces

december 2022
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(Gonzales)
Cesar Gonzales (31 years), Ella Carver (10 years), Marisol Carver (4 years), Manuel Carver (4 years)

narrated by: Cesar

I had considered marrying Annie at one point, but she always pushed me away. Mom always said that I couldn’t help someone who didn’t want to help themselves, and that’s why I’d backed away. I wished that I hadn’t, maybe I could have saved her if I’d tried more. Instead it’s me raising three kids alone with no other adult to share the responsibility with.

life starting with goodbye

june 2021
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(Gonzales Household Profile)
Cesar Gonzales (30 years), Ella Carver (9 years), Marisol (3 years), Manuel (3 years)

~~~~

He still can’t believe that any of this has happened. He wakes in the morning in his same bed, but a new room, and he feels disoriented, a sickness growing in his stomach as his mind struggles to remember before it hits full force. Annie is dead; Annie died. How can that even be? His mind struggles to deny it, is this one of the phases people always talk about? He wonders objectively, distracting himself from the panic inducing pain that hits him straight in the gut, whenever she comes to his mind. He can’t accept it, yet everything about his reality screams it to be true.