I have hardly gone and hardly wish’d to go any farther,

But stop and loiter all the time to sing it in ecstatic songs.

-Walt Whitman

Maritza looked in at the empty apartment, as she threw her box of emptied out air mattresses to the floor and sighed with relief.

“We’re finally here,” she muttered as she headed towards the kitchenette. The two hour drive was dreary and riddled with intermittent rain, and the kids yelling at each other like shrieking banshees in the back seats didn’t help.

“HA! Guess you’re never gonna see that boy who asked you out again!” Zekito mocked.

“Guess you’re gonna continue to not have any friends, Zekito!” Flora retorted.

Maritza was just glad that dreadful trip was over, and she could finally just put air in one of those mattresses and fade into a deep dark sleep.

Or so she thought.

Within minutes of her setting up the air machine, her children were yelling about who would have the only other room in this tiny two bedroom apartment. When Maritza explained to her two darling children that they would in fact be SHARING the only other room, the yelling increased in volume and annoyance threefold.

“LET ZEKITO SLEEP IN THE LIVING ROOM!” Flora yelled.

“WHY DON’T YOU?” Zekito responded.

The bickering was interrupted by a knock on the door and the sound of a woman asking to be let in.

“Who's yelling in there?” The voice asked, “is that my sweet little niece and nephew?”

Zekito rushed to the door, opened it, and lunged at his auntie Sierra who was on the other side.

“Tia!” He yelled as he hugged her.

“Hey little man,” She responded as she hugged him back, “What was all that yelling about?”

“Well,” he began, “Me and Flora were arguing about the umm… room situation.”

“More like, the lack thereof.” Flora snarled.

“Welp,” Sierra stated, “you two can stay here and figure it out while I take your mama out shopping for a bit. Close the door behind us. This ain’t a terrible neighborhood, but you never know who’s around.”

As Sierra and Maritza exited the house and closed the door, the kids collectively looked in amazement at the amount of locks the door had compared to their old home in Allentown.

Outside, Sierra began to describe the 'in’s & out’s' of New York City, pointing at various street markers and giving her a few quick tales about what had happened there before. They then went shopping for some new mattresses and a few nice articles of clothing for the kids, along with some food for the week.

“This is 139th street,” she muttered after exiting the local supermarket, “This is where you’ll spend a lot of your time since this is where my shop is located. Welcome to Washington heights!”

They both enter a small Bodega-like shop where a young man at the counter saluted them.

“Oh hey,” Sierra said as she waved at the young man then looked back at Maritza, “that’s Sergio. He’s a good kid, working the front part of my store for two years now. Can’t pay him a lot, But I let him take some food home, and he always tells me he rather be here than at home most days. He studies a lot.”

They walk past the front of the store until they reach a door in the back. The door is colored red and has a sign that reads, ‘Ayuda Espiritual: Santera Sierra Mendez”

“Hmm,” Maritza began, “I was always told that your store was just a witch potion store, at least that was how your mother always described it.”

“Ha,” Responded Sierra, “My mom would say that. No, I have a pretty modest Grocery store that pays my bills, and I have a side venture that my ma will always consider evil because she doesn’t understand anything but her pastor’s yelling. We know better. You DEFINITELY know better.”

Maritza uncomfortably nodded in agreement, and they entered the red door.

Inside was a room adorned in candles, lighted by a deep crimson candle light, and filled with a thick fog of smoky incense.

“I haven’t seen a room like this since those days I spent with Madame Melfi,” Maritza stated, “I remember her less and less each day. But seeing this brings it all back to me.”

Maritza closed her eyes and suddenly saw a vision of her former mentor appear, grayed hair and all.

“Little fire,” the vision began, “You can hide your powers, but that won’t stop what’s to come. You need to…”

“Maro?” Interrupted Sierra. “Are you okay?”

“Ye..yeah,” Maritza answered, “I just… I’m fine. I need to get back to my children, though. Can we leave?”

“Sure,” Sierra said, “We can come back here later. I need to get you situated as to what your job will be around here, but we can do that tomorrow. Let’s check on your little kiddos.”

They headed back to the apartment with the man who was delivering the mattresses, a kind, portly old soul named Hidalgo who refused to let them walk so far while he had the means to get them there.

They arrived shortly after six in the evening, and opened the door to see the two Mendez children fast asleep on one of the air mattresses.

“Looks like the boredom got the best of them.” Maritza said as she chuckled slightly.

Sierra slowly walked into the kitchen, scuffled around a bit through one of the drawers there and pulled out a small air-horn she kept, walked back out to where the kids were, blowing that air-horn and frightening the two from their deep sleeps.

“What the hell!” shouted Flora as she jolted upwards.

“Time to start workin’ kiddos,” Sierra said as she held back laughter, “We got a LOT of stuff to move in.”