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A Chapter by Lizardo

The great opportunity

The car moved forward again, Charles was still lost in his thoughts watching how people and cars moved in the world. “The ones who make this world run” Charles thought.

“You were drawing an airplane” Said Charles’s dad not taking his eyes off the road.

“He was explaining something about the cold war, what is that going to help me in life?” Charles said in an indifferent tone.

“History makes us not take wrong paths, we learn from the mistakes of our past ones to moved forward, and people will learn from the mistakes we do and not do them again in the future” Said Charles dad.

Again, Charles was amazed of how much his father new about life.

‘’I guess philosophy runs in our veins’’ Thought Charles.

But yet again, he was lost in his thoughts. Dreaming about traveling through the world and going to great adventures with new people…

But how could he do this? Maybe he was going to die and never fulfill his dreams…

The car turned around right where a lot of big houses were, the car parked in front of a big house with fancy windows and a door made of pure wood with flowers in front of the main windows and a tree in the front yard.

“I’m starving” Said Charles

“You’re mother is making dinner, you can go to your room and study before dinner is ready” Said his father.

Charles opened the big door made of wood and entered home.

Fancy decorations in the living room with a big glass table at the center of it.

The house’s library was at the right corner of it and black sofa’s place there too, one in front of the glass table and the other two at the sides of it with the chimney a few meters away from the table.

Charles’s house was really fancy; it all came from his mother thoughts of decoration from which he thought that sometimes worked really well.

He pass the T.V Room where a large 62’ inch flat screen T.V stood there with a big red sofa and a white closet too.

Then he came to what he liked to call the “intersection” Where on the right side was his parent’s room and on the other was his. The house had a lot of rooms and a big backyard too, but his parent’s choose to have Charles close to them.

He entered his room. A large bed stood close to a wall while on the right side was Charles’s own library, a book shelf. Next to that was his closet and in front of his bed was a 32’ inch T.V. He pretty much had everything to live a good life.

But yet, he felt empty.

Charles always thought that a human would never be happy in this world, maybe in some other world like heaven or wherever God lived.

Charles lay on his bed, his face facing the ceiling. Thinking and dreaming about his adventures around the world, climb Mt. Everest? Why not? Or go watch FC Barcelona play at Barcelona? Why not? All of this dreams and questions on his head.

He felt sad in a way because he thought that he would never reach his dreams.

But he remembered what his father had told him once when he was younger.

“Charles, the last thing that you lose is hope” “You always need to fight for your dreams, dreams make you who you are”

Those words vibrated through Charles’s head since his father told him that.

“Charles! Time to eat dinner, come on!” Said his mother in that sweet voice of hers.

“Coming mom!” he replied

When he was getting up, he felt a piece of paper in his pocket.

“Wonder what this is” he thought

He grabbed the paper from his pocket, unwrapped and read what it said:

With this circular around school, we hereby tell you that your children will be tested in a test of knowledge, if your child gets a high level in his notes; the council has decided to provide a trip around different parts of the world as a high prize for it.

We hope that your child puts a lot effort on this test that is very important for our school and country

Sincerely, Mrs. Nicole

Principal of Wilson high school

“How could I not notice that?” Asked Charles

Charles thought about it, it’s going to be very hard to be the first place and he wasn’t a good student because he was always lazy. But he thought that it was worth a try to put a lot of effort on it, if he didn’t get first place, at least he would gain respect around his school.

“Charles! This is last call; your food is getting cold!” Yelled Charles’s mother

“Coming mother!” Answered back Charles

He went to the table and ate Dinner with his parents in the big wood table; it was really fancy with two candles on it and the place where Charles’s mother would keep some snacks or fruit for the family.

His father joked around the whole time; he said that some guy in the office laugh so hard that coffee spill out of nostrils.

His mother said that she almost fell down today trying to clean the shower. My father laugh at that and Charles’s mother gave his father one of those: “I’m going to kill you” stares.

We finish our food. Charles’s parents said to Charles that they were going to watch a movie in their bedroom and if he needed something, to just knock on their door.

Charles nodded and went to his room.

He then again, rested in his bed thinking about the opportunity of going to a great adventure. “The opportunity to run and be free” He thought.

Charles closed his eyes and dreamed of being at the top of Mt. Everest.

“No mountains are higher then you” His father told him once

“You are higher than the mountains because you can go higher”

He changed his clothes to pajamas and yet again, rested on his bed.

Turned on the T.V and watch a movie.

Soon after the movie started, he fell asleep.

The next morning, Charles woke up in a hurry, he thought that today was Monday, but he was relief to know that it was Saturday.

“Finally some time rest and play with my friends or talk with my crush” He thought

He changed his clothes and ate breakfast. His mother had this amazing idea of going out to a nearby lake and told Charles that if he wanted to bring something with him, like a book to study.

If it weren’t for the situation, Charles wouldn’t have accepted the deal, but since it was a dream come true, he took it.

He was going to tell his parents about the opportunity when they got to the lake.