Page 12 - Mateo and the Gift of Presence audio flip book Ch 1-2

Mateo and the Gift of Presence

for lunch time and all the kids would be getting a plaque of one
kind or another, except him.
Mrs. Hatfield had told his mother at the last parent-
teacher conference that she “simply couldn’t justify” giving
him an award, “even for participation.” After hearing that, his
mother had yanked him into the car and driven away from the

school at high speed, almost hitting one of his classmates in the
crosswalk. He’d gotten a lecture from his father that evening
too, but, as usual, he’d blocked out the words.
“BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, Mateo. Why didn’t you get a
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH?”
Mateo had to place his rarely used desk chair on the
mattress to reach the crack, and it was a difficult maneuver.
The chair rocked unsteadily and threatened to topple over as
he climbed onto it. And it did fall over (three times to be exact),

but Mateo was so drawn to the crack that he kept on trying.
Finally, on his fourth attempt, he was successful. He actually
touched the crack. And the moment he did, he felt a jolt of elec-
tricity shoot from his fingers through his body and out his toes
before the room disappeared from view and he was somewhere
else altogether.
I would be remiss to lead you into the next few minutes

of Mateo’s unusual day without advising you to bring along some
peanut butter sandwiches and a sword, for Mateo had neither
and would soon regret it. But you have been forewarned and
can run off and get them now. Then perhaps you’ll be willing to
share them with Mateo when we all get to where we’re going,
in Chapter Two.

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