We were standing outside the beauty salon. I was looking at the sky thinking and my sister Marisol, was on the phone talking with her boyfriend. After they hang up she looked at the sky and told me “Diane what would you say if for your birthday I gave you a doll?











“A doll? I have not played with dolls since I was five”.

“Yeah, but this is a live doll… you know walking and talking.”

“Oh… wait no… your pregnant?”

“Yeah”

I could not believe it, her pregnant. She was the innocent one, I was the crazy one How could this happen? I mean I know how children are made, but her…

She was already two months pregnant. When my dad found out he almost had a heart attack. He was so mad he did not talk to any of us for days nor did he want to eat or sleep. My mother would not eat or sleep.

When my dad talked to her boyfriend he asked for a DNA tested because he was not sure if it was his or not. My sister refused and said she would take care of the kid by herself. She did not need anyone’s help. As time passed he left to Mexico and we did not hear anything about him.

I on the other hand, was extremely happy. A new baby in the house! I had been asking my mom for a younger sibling and now I was going to get a nice or nephew. There were endless arguments between my brother and I weathered it was going to be a boy o girl.

Every night I would lie down next to my sister, rub her tummy and talk to the baby. With time my doll, how I call her, would move around like crazy just with the sound of my voice.

By the forth month, after endless debates, we had chosen the name. If it was a girl her name would be Mariana. Maria because of my sister’s mother and Ana because of her step-mother, my mother. If it was a boy his name would be Juan Jaime. Juan for our dad and Jaime for her brother who died in a car accident.

On her sixth month she was told the baby was a girl. I was so happy, but my father and brother were not. She was also told she would be due June 10th.

Yet in the middle of the night of Mary 27th her water broke and by May 27th at 2 pm we had a new member of the family.

As I look back on those 12 hours of labor a lot of pain and almost cesarean section my sister went through, I realize how unbelievable it is for a little baby to live inside her mother. That is why she is my little miracle doll.