A little boy writes about his best friend, Carmelo Enrique Manuel Torrez, who has AIDS. Both boys are seven years old.
My best friend is named Carmelo. Carmelo Enrique Manuel Torrez is his whole name, and we have been best friends ever since he came to our school. I liked him right off, but most kids were scared of him at first.
You see, Carmelo isn't like most boys. He LOOKS basically okay on the outside, but he is a very sick little boy, and he has a disease that causes him to miss a lot of school. It sometimes makes him so sick he often ends up in the hospital. My friend has a disease called AIDS, which causes his body to attack his blood cells, and it also causes other bad things to happen. It ISN'T catching, but AIDS is very serious, and he has to take all kinds of pills because his body isn't able to fight off germs, and he can get very sick very easily. He gets tired and weak a lot of the time, and he is smaller and skinnier than a lot of kids; even though we are both seven, he looks more like a three-year-old, and he is very tiny. He is probably one of the smallest kids in our school, and he is THE smallest kid in our class. It is very easy to pick out Carmelo out in a crowd.
Carmelo got this AIDS disease because he has a blood disease that causes him to bleed a lot (even a little cut can cause problems), and he got AIDS when he got some bad blood in a transfusion. At first, he seemed okay, but then he started getting fevers, "night sweats", and started feeling sick and run down all of the time; and when his parents took him to the doctor's, it was found that he had something seriously wrong; and so the doctor put him into the hospital, and this was where they found out that he had AIDS.
Now, AIDS is NOT a very nice disease because it can kill you if you have it; and many people who DO have AIDS die from it. That means that Carmelo could die if he got sick enough; and it really scares me because he is just a little kid, and I don't like the thought of him dying. It is also a disease that many people don't understand, and people sometimes think that they can "catch" it from others; but you CAN'T if you take certain steps in protecting yourself. Now, if I were to get a cut, and some of Carmelo's blood got into it, maybe then I could get AIDS, but if I touch him, shake his hand, or be around him, or share food with him, I WON'T get it; but people oftentimes don't know this, and they treat my friend very badly and tease and make fun of him. He doesn't have many friends as it is because many people don't understand about AIDS or what it does; they only know that it is a very bad disease, and it can kill a person who has it.
MOST people who have AIDS are people who share needles or people who have unsafe sex, or people who are gay (that means a man loving another man instead of a woman or a woman loving another woman instead of a man); but the ONLY way children can get AIDS is if their parents took drugs and used dirty needles and they end up getting it; and they end up passing it on to their unborn babies; but that is the ONLY way a kid can get AIDS. Or they can get AIDS if they get a bag of bad blood, which has the AIDS germ in it; and this is how Carmelo got AIDS. He didn't ask to GET AIDS, but he did by getting some bad blood, and now he has to be the one who suffers.
It is hard seeing my best friend being so sick because he often doesn't feel good, and there are days where he has to go home early from school or go to the hospital; and it is also hard because say, we may want to go fishing or do something fun together, but when I ask his Mama, she tells me that he can't come outside because Carmelo is sick again or is in the hospital; and that always makes me mad. I know it isn't his fault he is sick, but I wish he could get better and leave all this AIDS stuff behind him; and then we can play like normal kids.
When Carmelo first came to our school from New York City, many people didn't want him to come because of his having AIDS, and there was a huge stink after a while, but then people got smart and learned about AIDS and what it is and what it is NOT; and soon Carmelo was accepted, and it was okay for him to come to our school. But he still doesn't have very many friends and kids still tease him; and it makes me very sad because Carmelo has something that is NOT his fault, and he didn't ASK to have AIDS. But I HAVE become his best friend, and now we are very close; and when he IS well or isn't in the hospital, we often have a lot of fun together.
suffer the innocent...so sad...they are prejudiced against. well written documentation of what the actions of a few have done to damn the human race, unless they are careful. especially innocent little children.
Spoken Word
This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
Spoken Word
This CD will touch the deepest inner part of your humanness and spirit, you will never be the same after listening to the depths of struggle, the reality of life, the touching voice of truth. It will shock you, move you to tears. It w
A page-turning novel about a relationship between best friends that is interrupted because of betrayal , deceit, sexual promiscuity and pregnancy happens!
