It was after we’d eaten, my homework finished, and I splashed through the creek, dragging my feet along the sand. And there was that miserable old woman’s house, her broom resting on the porch, both the woman and the broom ready to come after me. This time I’d go after the broom. I crept up on the porch, my bare feet leaving wet prints, and I reached, reached farther for it. Then it was in my hand. I backed down the step and ran along the edge of the creek in the growing darkness. “Too bad, old woman,” I whispered to myself, and threw the broom into the high weeds that lined the creek. It was so easy… Until I told Julian. “We can’t do that, Mateo,” he said. “What does she have but her house, her broom? No family. No one to care about her.” We went back to look for the broom, but it wasn’t there. “Maybe she found it,” I said. “I don’t think so.” He ran his hands through his hair. “It’s here somewhere, but it’s too dark.” Julian took the money he’d been saving in his sock and bought her a broom, a much better one that wasn’t filthy and falling apart.
What do You think about Until I Find Julian (2015)?
