Alejandro was patiently, or not so patiently, waiting for his mother to come home from work. All summer he has spent his days with his grandmother. He is only six years old so he can't stay home by himself yet. Some of the other kids in the neighborhood do but he is happy to stay with abuela, grandma. Even though his teachers have made it clear he is to speak English at school his abuela prefers spanish at her house.Today is an exciting day. When his mom gets home they are going to pack up the car and go away for the weekend. They usually get to do this one time during the summer. They go to the beach on Sunday sometimes when his mom isn't too tired. His mom works two jobs and alot of time she gets overtime. So, she even has to work some Saturdays and some nights even past supper. On the nights when she gets home really late he knows those are the days she gets to save extra money for their weekend.
They don't ever drive too far because, even though she takes an exta day off she said she wants to have alot of time to have fun, not spend time driving. They always go somewhere away from Miami. They live in a part of Miami called "Little Havana". He doesn't remember living in Cuba because they came over here when he was just a baby, but from the stories he's heard he is glad to live here. Even though it's better here mom says she just needs to get away and forget about the city for awhile.
Fear, and sadness washed over him as he heard the phone ring. He just knew it was going to be his mother saying she was going to have to work late. Just then as his abuela was talking on the phone his mothers car pulled into the driveway.
"Mami!, Mami!, Abuela!,Abuela!,madre esta' aqui'!" Alejandro screamed as he ran around the house looking for his grandmother.
By the time his grandmother finished her phone call Alejandro's mother was already in the house. She was just as anxious to leave for their weekend as he was so they said goodbye to Abuela, grabbed Alejandro's stuff and hurried home. They threw their suitcases in the trunk, grabbed a sandwich, chips, and a drink, and were out the door again.
As they started driving Alejandro's mother asked him how his day was. It was pretty much the same as every other day in the summer. Play a board game or cards with abuela, watch some t.v while abuela rests after lunch, then just hang out and do whatever until mom comes to pick him up about supper time. Miami's rush hour traffic lasts longer than an hour so it seemed like it took them forever to get out of the city, but they still made it to Fort Lauderdale in a little over an hour.
They found their motel, and went up to their room. Alejandro liked for their room to be on the highest floor possible. This time they were on the eighth floor, and got to look out over the beach. After getting settled in, and checking out the room, they headed to the beach. Over the course of the weekend, they had drinks with umbrellas in them, seashell hunts, shopping in gift shops, playing games in arcades, eating whatever they wanted, late night T.V., and the sunrise over the ocean (which meant naps if necessary in the afternoon). It was such a fun time, both of them got sad, and quiet when it was time to pack up Sunday. It was also a quiet ride back to Miami. So, when they got close to home mom decided to get them each ice cream since she needed to stop and get gas anyway. They came out of the store and started toward the car when suddenly a car came out of nowhere, speeding between the store and the gas pumps. The driver had no other place to go, and Alejandro had no time to get out of the way. The next thing Alejandro knew he was waking up in the hospital. His mom told him he had been there four days. The doctors and nurses had done a bunch of tests on him and, even though he didn't understand everything, he understood it when they said his legs didn't work anymore from the waist down. Over the next few weeks the phone rang almost constantly, newspapers wanting an interview, amusement parks offering free days, and companies offering free stuff. The best thing was a brand new motorized wheelchair. The day it was delivered everyone was so excited. His whole family came over to check it out. They helped him figure it out and he took it for a test drive. He was really excited about it because, school had started and he wasn't able to be there for his first day of first grade, now he would be able to go to school. They lived close enough to the school so Abuela could walk him there in the morning, since his mother had to go to work so early. He was a little worried because he remembered last year in Kindergarten some of the bigger kids picking on the littler ones. When they got there he was surprised, everyone was happy to see him, and offered to help even with stuff he could do on his own.
One day as he and his grandma were leaving school it started to rain. They thought they could make it home before it got too bad, but just the opposite happened. It started lightning really bad and there was no place to get inside so they just had to keep going. One flash of lightning was so close it made his wheelchair shut off. Fortunately they were close enough by then, that it wasn't too hard for his grandma to push him the rest of the way. Grandma called for his uncle to come over to check out the wheelchair. When he got there there the chair started up like normal and seemed fine. He said it must have been too much electricity from the lightning, and that messed up the
That night after supper Alejandro was going to go outside. This was really the first chance he had to ride it since the storm, because his mom puts it in the car to go home. When he started it up, he thought it sounded different but decided it must have been his imagination. Well, when he pushed the lever to go forward, he did a wheely and almost crashed through the front door. He was so stunned that, when he finally landed back down on all four wheels he had a hard time catching his breath. After he settled down and thought about it for a few minutes he decided this was one secret noone was going to know about.
It took him a while to get used to his new turbo power. He really had to be careful not to forget about it at school or when other people were around. He didn't need anyone finding out and ratting on him. One day though at Abuela's house she let him go outside after his snack. He was cruising up and down the sidewalk, when he heard yelling. He went around the corner and found his friend Hector being picked on by two older boys. Hector had gotten a new hat and they were playing keep away with it. Alejandro decided he couldn't keep his chair a secret any longer. He shoved the lever all the way to the forward position, the motor screamed to life. What was once a low humming sound, was now a roar that definitely got noticed, especially by two bullies. Alejandro wheelied about ten feet, and when he came down he had one of the bullies on the run. He threw Hectors hat to him and turned up an alley as fast as he could go. Even though he had the speed Alejandro didn't exactly have the manuverability so he had to let him go. He spun around to see the other punk laughing at his friend being chased by a kid in a wheelchair. Well, his laughter turned to screams of fear when he saw Alejandro coming after him. Unfortunately for him Alejandro was between him and the alleys so Alejandro quickly caught up to him. As he got beside him he turned into him just enough that his front wheels bumped the bully's left leg into his right leg and he went rolling down the sidewalk, tearing his pants and scraping his knees and elbows. He got turned around just in time to see the second punk limping away, wailing on his way home.
He went back to make sure Hector was okay,and Hector was just standing there with his mouth hanging wide open.
"How did you do that?" he asked
"I don't know, after a thunder storm I had this burst of power,please don't tell anyone, I don't want them to take it away from me." Alejandro replied
"Oh, don't worry about that." Hector said "You keep guys like that away from everybody and we'll all keep your secret."
The two headed home, laughing all the way, remembering how those punks looked being chased by a little kid in a wheelchair.
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