“If you don’t move them, they get pressure ulcers, like this one.”  Sam said peeling back the dressing on the wound at Max‘s heel and Bette turned away.  The wound the size of a quarter, but as deep
as two inches, she’d seen the bone.

“Oh god!”  Bette said, happy that she hadn’t eaten, Sam replaced the bandage and pulled the
sheet over the woman, and then she moved into her line of sight.

“That’s what Ro is in for if she keeps running with the gang, they jumped her
out, didn’t they?”  Sam asked and Bette nodded, wiping away the hot tears from
her eyes and Sam handed her a tissue.

“She works for you?  How?”  Sam asked, and Bette‘s voice hitched in her throat.  This woman had shown her Max for a reason, what was that?  To convince her that the gang was a dead end.  She’d known that already.

“She’s working at the CAC.”  Bette stammered and Sam smiled, nodding.

“She’s good; she painted something for me last year….  She donated the money to the center in her
neighborhood.  Did it anonymously of
course.  Oscar would have a fit if he found out that Ro
is what paid for his new teaching center.” 
Sam said, moving to the door and Bette followed her, back to the elevator and
down to Rosita’s room.

“Oscar, at the Center?  That is her brother.  I know him…”  Bette drifted off and then said in an ever-softer voice,
“That’s who she painted in the alleyway, the mural I saw.  I was so taken with the life in the painting;
all the while she was painting a dead woman.” 
Bette said softly, and Sam turned to her.

“No, she lives.  In Rosita’s heart, she
lives.”  Sam said quietly, biting her lip, she turned
and stared for a long moment at Max, feeling her heart turn back to stone.

Take
Me Away
12.14.04

I fall away from you
Tearing and ripping
Emotions so raw
Pain fills my every breath
Take me away