Free No Room for Mercy by Clever Black

Keep her fed and keep her safe until I get back up there to
Saint Louis.” Carmella ordered before turning and walking off.
    “Si, boss,” Toodie said lowly as she and Phoebe eased
over to the front gate.
    Carmella walked out onto the dirt sidewalk and knelt down before the
little girl and put on a wide smile as she grabbed her hands. “What’s
your name again? I forget.”
    “Peppi Vargas.”
    “Okay, Pepper,” Carmella said as she ran her hands
through the yellow-skinned, dark-eyed, thin framed little girl’s
head of hair. “I will call you Pepper because you have such
thick and shiny black hair on your head. You’re very pretty,
too. My girls Toodie and Phoebe over there will take you to America,
but you have to stay here and leave with them today, okay?”
    Ten year-old Peppi Vargas eyed Toodie and Phoebe with a hint of fear
as they stood near the gate staring directly at her and Carmella.
Peppi had witnessed the conversation between Carmella and the two
sisters. She didn’t know what they were discussing exactly, but
she’d seen when Carmella hit Toodie and knocked her down before
she pointed back at her.
    Peppi wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling Toodie was the one
who’d shot her mother and she grew afraid. For all ten year-old
Peppi Vargas knew, Toodie and Phoebe may just kill her and dump her
body on side of the road before they even made it to the border, but
if she didn’t make it to America, she was as good as dead
anyways so she might as well take her chances with the people who may
have killed her mother the night before.
    “ No quiero morir,” ( I don’t
want to die.) Pepper cried as she reached out and hugged Carmella
tightly.
    “Oh, my poor baby,” Carmella said lovingly as she hugged
Pepper tightly and rubbed her back softly. “You will be okay in
America, Pepper. Toodie and Phoebe will not let anything happen to
you. You have my word that you will not be harmed, okay? You have my
word, baby.”
    “Okay,” Pepper said. “Will I ever see you again,
Carmella?”
    “As soon as I am done here,” Carmella responded as she
wiped subtle tears from her eyes. “ When I’m done here I
will come and see you, okay?” she assured as she opened the
gate and welcomed Pepper inside. “Toodie? Somalis! Phoebe?
Hospital for Peppi! Use the inside left lane crossing the border.
They will know you are coming today,” she then reiterated
before jumping back into the Jaguar.
    “Si, boss,” Toodie and Phoebe ended in unison as they
lead Peppi into the home.
     
     

    CHAPTER FIVE
    THEY COME FROM “THE AP”
    “ Mi papá
siempre me sentaba al viejo campo de fútbol en el viejo barrio
en Valle Hermoso y corría con mis brazos abiertos como un
pájaro intentando volar.” (And then my
Pa-Pa used to always take me to the old soccer field in the old
neighborhood back in Valle Hermoso and I would run around with my
arms spread like a bird trying to fly.) Carmella said as she sat on
Pepper’s bed with her feet tucked under her body, telling her
about her childhood.
    True to her word, Carmella, after overseeing a shipment of fifty-six
kilograms that had been delivered to Houston, Texas, had flown to
Saint Louis and made her way over to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s
Hospital were Pepper was recovering with ease. The procedure Pepper
had undergone was simple; doctors were skeptical as to whether she
would need a catheter after hearing her story, so they evaluated her
with an electrocardiogram before placing her under the knife. She was
quickly diagnosed as having that of an innocent heart murmur, which
required no medication or surgery. The condition was harmless and
almost always went away once a child reached adulthood. Doctors in
Valle Hermoso had merely misdiagnosed the child. Pepper was then
given booster shots and placed under observation for a week.
    When Carmella walked into the room, Pepper’s eyes lit up. She
was surprise the woman had kept her promise. She now lay back in her
bed licking an