"Julio! Ven adentro! Es hora de dormir!"

Julio Sanchez sat in his dusty backyard, near Osa's little grave, thinking. He had been sitting there for most of the evening. His parents had repeatedly called him to come in for bed, but he ignored them, choosing to stay out and plan his revenge.

For a brief while, he had contemplated finding a gun and hunting down the two guys in the car. He had memorized the plate number, and guns weren't hard to find. Then his little brother Oscar had come outside to help hold vigil for Osa. Shooting two gangsters wouldn't present a good example for Oscar, Julio decided.

He had thought about various other ways to get back: slash their tires, egg their houses. Every idea was discarded, though, generally because it would be traceable back to Julio. Gangsters didn't tolerate pain-in-the-ass thirteen-year-olds, so Julio knew his revenge had to be untraceable.

"Julio!"

"Un momento, Mama!"

"Julio!" This time, it was his father's deep voice calling him.

Julio cast one last look towards the flowers over Osa's grave, then scrambled to his feet and ran inside. "Lo siento, Papa."

His father merely shrugged slightly and squeezed his son's shoulder with one large hand. He knew his son had had some kind of deep connection with that cat, and had taken the loss hard. "It's alright. Listen to your mama now, though. Go to bed. It'll be better in the morning."

Julio nodded. "'Night, Papa. 'Night Mama."

"Buenas noches."

He ducked down the hall to the shared bathroom, brushed his teeth, went to the room he shared with Oscar, and changed into his pajamas. Oscar was already asleep, so Julio was quiet as he padded to his bed near the window. He knelt to pray, kept it simple, asked God to keep Osa safe in heaven, then, as an afterthought, asked God to help him catch Osa's killers. It might not have been the best thing to ask for, but it was what he wanted, wanted so deeply it made his heart ache.

He lay in his bed, unable to fall asleep. The moonlight crept slowly across the room through the window as the night wore on. Julio watched the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. No new ideas had sprung to mind, when suddenly, he heard sirens.

He sat up in bed, as the sirens screamed, coming closer. After a few moments, three cop cars shrieked down the street, their lights flashing through the room in a whirl of magenta and indigo. A moment later, they vanished around the corner.

Julio sat back on his bed. The L.A.P.D. was out in force tonight to catch some scumbag. "Thank you," he whispered. "Gracias a Dios. I will be a cop, Osa. I will find them."