Page 10 - Mateo and the Gift of Presence audio flip book Ch 1-2

Mateo and the Gift of Presence

joust with the “shadow hand” of the other, a game that might
normally have kept him entertained all the way to dinner.
But as the minutes passed, and Mateo realized that the
lavender color on his fingers was not going to vanish all by itself,
he wandered into the kitchen. He was starving and ready for his
eighth enormous snack of the day, and hunger was one of the

few things that made Mateo snap to attention and take action.
As Mateo opened the refrigerator and considered its
contents, it occurred to him that his mother would be very
angry if he showed up to dinner with lavender fingers. She was
picky about cleanliness, as well as a host of other things. She
would likely accuse him of being up to some kind of mischief
when he should have been doing something useful with his
free time (like retirement planning). So Mateo decided that
he would lie. He would lie because it was the easiest way to

cover his tracks when he was being present instead of being
productive. And with his rich imagination, Mateo could dream
up some real whoppers.
“I’ll say that Alex painted them while I was sleeping,”
he thought with a devilish grin. “That will get me off the hook
and him into trouble!”
Now I want to assure you that Mateo was not a mean

child; not at all. But his parents were always holding up Alex as
a model for the kind of kid they wanted him to be, and it hurt
his feelings.
“Why can’t you be more like Alex? He doesn’t muck
around! Watch him at batting practice. Watch him whiz
through his homework. Watch and learn!”

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