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Zeek Reyes

Ezekiel “Zeek” Reyes was Julian Reyes’s father and Megan Ashley Alvarez’s partner. He became a father at seventeen and provided most of Julian’s care. He died at twenty, approaching his twenty-first birthday, when Julian was nearly three.

Early Life and Background

Zeek grew up in Fresno, California. His father owned an independent car-repair shop, and its income gave the Reyes household a degree of local financial security without making them wealthy. Zeek had a difficult childhood. He was an honor student and was generally well-liked by his peers, although anxiety and fear of being hurt made it difficult for him to form friendships. His father abused him, and the abuse worsened during the period when Zeek was hospitalized for his mental-health conditions.

Before the 2002–03 school year, Ashley’s family moved into a home a few blocks from the Reyes home in Fresno High-Roeding. Their fathers met when Ruben Alvarez brought the family car to Zeek’s father’s repair shop, and the two men became friends. Zeek and Ashley met at the shop that summer; he recognized her when they began sixth grade together at Fremont Elementary School.

Relatives and some peers bullied Zeek for his anxious reactions. Throughout his childhood, he repeatedly heard the taunt, “you worry more than a damn girl”. His older brother Marco also called him a nerd for reading and studying. The ridicule taught Zeek to invalidate his own distress and distrust his judgment when he became alarmed. Being generally well-liked did not protect him from this bullying. The family’s attacks on masculinity included telling both Zeek and, later, Julian that they “weren’t man enough”.

During adolescence, Zeek studied to maintain his grades and pursue scholarships while his father and brother ridiculed him and other teenage pressures accumulated. His older brother Marco did only enough to get by. Zeek also tutored a middle-school student in math. His grandparents did not dislike him, but they found his anxiety and other needs difficult to manage. Ashley remained the person with whom Zeek did not have to suppress or defend his distress.

Zeek’s academic record and quiet reputation led adults around him to cast him as the “good boy” and Ashley as the “bad girl.” His paternity surprised adults who treated that contrast as a meaningful division between them, rather than a reductive account of either person. Their peers, familiar with the pair’s longstanding closeness, were largely unsurprised that Zeek was the father.

Employment and Material Conditions

After Ashley’s death, Zeek worked early-morning shifts at a grocery-distribution warehouse, primarily picking and loading orders. His wages provided the household’s only reliable income while he remained Julian’s principal caregiver outside his shifts. He drove an aging 1990s Honda Civic between the warehouse, home, and Julian’s pickup. Appointments for Julian’s care or benefits could require Zeek to miss shifts. He had little, if any, paid sick or vacation leave, so an appointment could directly reduce the wages available for rent and household needs.

In 2009, Zeek used a basic flip phone. A smartphone was beyond what he could afford; the phone mattered because it kept him reachable for Julian’s daycare, medical care, work, and the people who might need to find him.

At the warehouse, Zeek became especially close to Hector, a twenty-one-year-old coworker and fellow young father. Hector remained near Zeek after Ashley’s death without treating him as fragile or requiring him to explain his grief.

On at least one occasion, a floor lead named Daniel pulled Zeek aside and gave him a large reusable bag of still-usable groceries that were nearing their best-by dates. At the time, Zeek had not eaten in more than twenty-four hours and was so exhausted that he was nearly falling asleep whenever he was not actively loading orders. The bag included a loaf of bread and deli food, a can of infant formula tucked at the bottom, a small bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, and several boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese. The food supplemented what Zeek could afford for himself and Julian without requiring the warehouse to discard it while it remained safe to eat.

Zeek maintained WIC benefits for Julian and applied for SNAP and TANF after Ashley’s death. The programs offset particular household needs, but each required separate applications, appointments, documentation, deadlines, and recertification. Managing those demands alone became difficult during periods of grief, illness, exhaustion, and heightened executive-function strain.

Health and Disabilities

Zeek had diagnosed panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He was hospitalized several times for these conditions and took prescribed medication after beginning treatment, despite his family’s earlier ridicule of his fears.

Zeek was neurodivergent. The exact nature of his neurodivergence remained undefined, but its effect on executive functioning became especially pronounced when he was grieving, ill, exhausted, or trying to manage the paperwork, appointments, and deadlines required to keep Julian housed, fed, and medically cared for.

Emotional stress could trigger symptom flares. Conversations with Ashley about his father’s and brother’s treatment of him could cause enough distress to bring on a flare, and he usually asked her not to raise the subject.

Zeek also lived with severe reflux. As a child, his father could treat his reluctance to eat or drink as defiance; during a pizza meal at the repair shop, he pressured Zeek to eat and drink soda despite the reflux it caused later. Family members treated Zeek’s slow eating and later regurgitation as pickiness or a failure to value food rather than a medical problem. He concealed his symptoms from most people, consistent with the shame and self-distrust created by his family’s attacks on his masculinity. Ashley was the principal exception and knew about the episodes he otherwise tried to keep private. Zeek’s more frequent symptom was regurgitation, in which food or acid could return without forceful retching. He also had less frequent episodes of true vomiting, with nausea and abdominal contractions, when a greasy, heavy meal and soda intensified a severe flare; an unrelated illness could worsen it further. Zeek normally slept with his upper body elevated and kept an emesis bag or trash can within arm’s reach of the bed because regurgitation could occur at night.

Closer to his death, Zeek began fainting at work and while with friends. He was waiting for specialist evaluation for a suspected cardiac problem but had not received a diagnosis. As the only person keeping a roof over his and Julian’s heads, he continued working despite the episodes and his profound exhaustion. The recurrent syncope and circumstances of his death were most consistent with an undiagnosed cardiac channelopathy, with LQT3 remaining the strongest retrospective possibility, but the exact disorder was never established.

Physical Characteristics

When Zeek and Ashley first met at eleven, she noticed his dark hair falling into his eyes and thought he looked smaller than she did.

Family and Core Relationships

Megan Ashley Alvarez

Main article: Zeek Reyes and Megan Ashley Alvarez

Main article: Ashley Alvarez Three-Day Disappearance and Hospitalization

Zeek and Ashley had known each other since sixth grade. As Ashley increasingly sneaked out, became involved in fights, and began experimenting with substances, Zeek was often the only person who could reach her. She sought comfort from him above everyone else, but he usually had to wait until she was ready to accept soothing. When Ashley experienced menstrual cramps severe enough to make her sob and vomit, Zeek knew how to provide steady counterpressure against the painful area and waited for her to direct or accept the contact. Despite Ashley’s own emotional turbulence, she remained Zeek’s safest relationship because she did not ridicule his fear or distress.

Shortly before they conceived Julian, Ashley disappeared for three days after she was last seen with older teenagers. Zeek was terrified and remained awake for more than forty-eight hours. He did not sleep until he received word that Ashley had been found unconscious and taken for medical treatment. She subsequently entered an adolescent inpatient mental-health program and received an accurate bipolar I diagnosis after a mixed episode.

During Ashley’s pregnancy, she frequently craved macaroni and cheese, although they could not afford it regularly. Zeek learned to make Kraft macaroni and cheese taste better with what they had, and Ashley called his version “amazing.”

Zeek regarded both Ashley and Julian as the center of his life. He hid his reflux from most people but allowed Ashley to know when it affected him. When Ashley experienced a postpartum bipolar episode with psychotic features after Julian’s birth, Zeek tried to obtain help. Others repeatedly characterized her distress as ordinary worries shared by new mothers. His learned distrust of his own alarm contributed to his acceptance of those reassurances despite his continuing concern for her.

Ruben Alvarez

Main article: Ruben Alvarez and Zeek Reyes

Ruben, Ashley’s father, genuinely liked Zeek and consistently regarded him as a good boy. Before Zeek was expelled, Ashley had tried to tell Ruben that something was wrong in the Reyes home, though she may only have alluded to it rather than explaining it directly. Ruben believed that she was exaggerating. After Zeek’s father expelled him following Julian’s birth, Ruben confronted him: “I wasn’t perfect and I never will be, and I’m pissed, sure, but she’s still my daughter, and he should still be your son.” The confrontation ended the friendship between the two fathers. Ruben let Zeek stay with him briefly before Zeek obtained a studio apartment for himself and Julian.

Ruben continued to call Zeek a good boy after his death. Once both Ashley and Zeek were gone, Ruben carried profound guilt for having dismissed what Ashley had tried to tell him and for not recognizing the danger Zeek faced sooner.

Julian Reyes

Main article: Julian Reyes and Zeek Reyes

Zeek was seventeen when Julian was born. His father expelled him from the family home, telling him, “You wanted to be a man so bad? Now you can deal with your choices.” Marco remained at home despite making less effort than Zeek, whose studying and pursuit of scholarships had not protected him from expulsion. Zeek stayed briefly with Ruben Alvarez, then used the money he had saved throughout the pregnancy to obtain a small studio apartment. He provided most of Julian’s care and raised him largely on his own.

Zeek called Julian his “lil man.” Julian experienced persistent reflux and other health difficulties as a baby. Zeek continued caring for him despite his own exhaustion and distress, sometimes crying after Julian fell asleep or while walking alone.

Death

Zeek died at twenty, approaching his twenty-first birthday, when Julian was nearly three. At the time, his recurrent fainting remained undiagnosed while he waited for specialist cardiac care. A welfare check was requested after Zeek failed to arrive for work one morning, an absence that was unusual because he consistently attended even when exhausted. Responding police officers found Julian in his crib. Zeek was in bed and initially appeared to be asleep, which confused the officers when their attempts to wake him revealed that he was unresponsive.

Zeek’s probable arrhythmic disorder and severe nighttime reflux both contributed to the circumstances of his death. The available evidence could not establish whether an arrhythmia caused a survivable loss of consciousness followed by fatal aspiration, or whether the cardiac event was itself fatal and aspiration occurred during the collapse. The causal order remained permanently undetermined.

News coverage described Zeek being found dead with the cause unknown. His death prompted renewed attention to the family after the earlier coverage of Ashley’s entry into traffic.

Legacy and Memory

Main article: Zeek Reyes’s Microcassette Archive

Julian’s own memories of Zeek were vague, but recalling them consistently brought him to tears. As an adult, he sometimes sobbed over photographs of himself with his father and could not explain the intensity of his grief. He missed Zeek deeply while judging it stupid to miss someone he believed he had barely known. Kayla Rossi rejected that judgment and affirmed his right to miss his father without requiring clearer memories or an explanation for his tears.

Julian suspected that his paternal grandfather and uncle had also abused Zeek, reasoning that “abusers rarely abuse just one person”. He had not learned Zeek’s abuse history, so his suspicion remained distinct from confirmed knowledge. Julian had only spoken fully about his love and grief for Zeek to Kayla.

Years after Zeek’s death, an unidentified person left a locked safe containing Zeek’s microcassette archive at Julian’s Los Angeles apartment. The collection included Zeek’s recorder and tapes, photographs, journals, inexpensive spiral notebooks, health notes, and drawings. Most recordings consisted of Zeek talking because he was lonely, although the voice-activated recorder also captured him sleeping, snoring, and experiencing health episodes he had not intended to preserve. In a written note, Zeek told Julian never to doubt that his mami had loved him and explicitly separated Ashley’s illness from the depth of her love. That clarification changed Julian’s understanding of Ashley, and photographs Zeek had taken and saved of Ashley with Julian helped his son understand what the words meant. Zeek had kept the photographs without knowing that Julian would later need them for that purpose. The safe opened with Julian’s birthdate.

After the success of ‘’I Am Still Me’‘, Julian reconnected with the Alvarez family. Ruben then gave him the information the medical examiner had released after Zeek’s death. The official information did not identify a definitive cause or resolve whether an arrhythmia or aspiration killed Zeek.

Characters Minor Characters Deceased Characters Disabled Characters Neurodivergent Characters