Facing Forward

This looks great. (Thanks, Andy.) Rachel Dissel: Johanna Orozco's grandmother clasped a bath towel to the darkening pit where the 18-year-old's jaw was supposed to be.

Blood seeped through the older woman's worn fingers.

A rusty-edged Honda Accord bulleted them toward MetroHealth Medical Center, blowing past corner bodegas, sagging wooden porches, 10 stop signs and three traffic lights.

The Orozcos' longtime neighbor, Maritza Santiago, never let off the horn.

Afternoon rush-hour traffic on West 25th Street parted biblically.

Vamos a hacerlo . . . We're going to make it, shouted Santiago, glancing at the normally chatty teen in the passenger seat.

Johanna's delicate hands rested on her lap.

Her long and slender fingers were spread and her nails, painstakingly painted a few days before, burst with green, purple, blue and yellow.

It was March 5, more than two months before senior prom, but just a day earlier she was modeling a shimmery brown dress that she had picked out for the dance. Soon her class -- Cleveland's Lincoln-West Class of 2007 -- would be measured for their caps and gowns, in cardinal red and fresh snow white.