“Max was 6 years older than Rosita and when Ro joined the gang, the Loca’s, Max was devastated.  Max thought Rosita was one of the smart ones, and she was, she just got caught up in wanting to belong to something.  Maxine and I had started up the center and she wanted Ro to keep up with school.  Ro didn’t want anything to do with school and she is smart Tina.  Whip smart, so finally Max talked some sense into her and Ro wanted out of the gang.  She had applied to college and had gotten in.  No one leaves the gang, less you die.”  He stopped there and took a breath knowing this was hard on him; Tina grabbed his hand and squeezed it.  “Rosita had a motorcycle, this hot crotch rocket thing.  They tried to jump her when she told them she was leaving for school and from what Ro remembers she got on the bike and one of them threatened Max as she sped away.  That didn’t sit well with Ro as you can imagine.”  Tina sat back and stared hard at Oscar as he tried to keep his voice calm.

            “Rosita rushed here and convinced Max to go on the run with her, for a while until she could figure out how to be safe.  She knew they’d never go after her father, Manny.  As Ro rode away with Max on the bike someone shot at the bike, it when end over end and when they came to rest, they were both dead.  I was there, I saw the paramedics trying to get them both to breathe, to live.  Max’s head was cracked open like a melon Tina.  It was awful, my sister was dead and so was Rosita.  I grabbed the closest gang member and started to rant about blood in and blood out.  Saying they were both out now, weren’t they?  They were dead, so Rosita wasn’t a Loca any longer.” 

            Oscar wiped away a tear and he cleared his throat.  He tried to gather his thoughts, and it took him a moment.

            “Then he said ‘Si, they are out, blood in, blood out.’”  The EMT that was working on Rosita called out that he had a pulse, she was officially dead for at least 15 minutes if not more, she was dead stone cold dead.  She died and when she heard she was free, she came back.  She lived.”  Tina stood up mesmerized by his story.