Chapter 32 – The Voice of the Past and the Flame of the Present
The cold of dawn seeped through the cracks in the house, and Salimo pulled the worn cloth to cover himself. At that moment, the memory returned to him like a punch: the street. He remembered the nights when the hard ground was his only bed, the times he searched for scraps of bread in the garbage cans, the days when hunger made his body tremble and the future seemed nonexistent.
He thought to himself, "If back then I'd only had one hen, just one, maybe the story would have been different. One egg a day would have made all the difference."“
The memory hurt, but something inside him wouldn't let him sink. What he had seen at Quinta Nicy had ignited a new flame. The past was screaming, yes, but the present was beginning to speak louder. It was as if each image from the visit pushed the pain back and made room for something greater: hope.
Salimo understood that he couldn't change yesterday, but he could decide tomorrow. And that decision was in his hands, not in the hands of luck. The boy who had once learned to survive amidst the cold and hunger was now discovering that he too could learn to thrive.
The fire within him grew. It was no longer the fragile flame of someone who only dreams. It was the beginning of a blaze of determination.
You Can: You are not a prisoner of what you have lived through. You are the builder of what you choose to live from now on.
