When I was in the 3rd grade, I lived in Santa Ana, a mediocre lowerclass area where crime reigned. I had a bestfriend, her name was Karla Hernandez, she was in the same classroom as I. We wallked to the schoolbus together everyday. It was approximately 2 blocks from my house, and 1 from hers. We did everything together, sat next to eachother on the bus, break time, lunch time, we even went to the restroom together at lunch. She was my bestfriend..
One clammy day at the bus stop, her mom had walked her to bus stop and stood with the other mothers, along with Karla. I came over to Karla, but she didn't respond when I said "hello". Her mother took us aside. I was scared, her mom had never talked to me before so I was nervous of what to say. Karla's mom started to talk:
"You cannot play with Karla. You are not like Karla. Don't play with my daughter nomore."
It's not hard to remember what she said, it's been almost 9 years since this happened and I remember it well.. I didn't understand why I couldn't play with her at that time. I was still young, and I still am. I didn't believe she was any better than me at the time and I don't believe that now.
I most recently saw Karla, I knew it for a fact. I moved out of Santa Ana about 7 years ago, and am doing well in a better area of town near Westminster.
I saw Karla at a Planned Parenthood about 2 weeks ago, she looked 3 to 4 months pregnant. I went to Planned Parenthood every month to get checked up, and to get birth control. I was walking out of the office when I saw her.
Same face shape, same lips, beautiful olive skin and those big, deceitful, innocent-looking eyes..
I stared a minute too long and she looked over at me.
"Karla?" I eagerly asked the moment she looked away.
She turned over at me, but had a puzzling look on her face and said
"who are you?"
A Vietnamese male about the age of 19 came over and grabbed her hand.
"let's GO babe.."
And she was gone before I could say anything else. Oh well.
Now that I'm older, well, 17 is an age where I guess I can begin to understand how people think, I'm not mad at Karla's mom anymore. I don't care what they are up to now and have nothing against ignorance.
I'm just glad that Racism skipped a generation.
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