The Three Wise Guides Read Online Free PDF Page A

“That’s all. I came as quickly as I could.   Besides, you are supposed to wait for me
inside if I am late.”
    “My teacher
had a meeting and told me I had to wait here,” she said, wiping the tears from
her cheeks. “I thought the gangs would get me.”
    He bent
over, picked up her books and put his arm around her shoulders. “Come on, pequeño,
you will be fine.”
    Mary and
Otis followed them as they walked for several blocks in the cold wind before
stopping in front of a small Latino Grocer.   Jose opened the door and held it for his sister.   Entering after them, Mary looked over the
grimy store.   There was a smell of rotten
vegetables and spoiled meat in the air.   The aisles were a combination of Hispanic canned goods and generic
American food.   The packaging was beat up
and dented, like it had been pulled from a discard bin at another store and
brought here.
    “Hey, you
are late,” a rotund greasy man with a limp moustache said as he rounded the
counter. “You’re docked an hour’s pay.”
    Mary looked
up at the clock over the counter.   Jose had
only been five minutes late, why didn’t he argue?
    “Yes, sir,”
Jose said. “What would you like me to do?”
    “I need the
floors mopped, the shelves restacked and back room cleaned,” he snarled.
“You’ll be watching the register tonight too, so don’t fall asleep again.”
    “Yes, sir,”
Jose said.
    “I saw Maria
with a juice box yesterday,” the man said, moving closer to Jose. “Did you make
sure you deducted that from your pay?”
    “Yes, sir, I
did,” Jose replied.
    “Good,
because if I find out you’ve cheated me, I’m calling DCFS and they will put
your sister in foster care sooner than you can spit,” he said. “And you know
what those men in foster care like to do to pretty little girls.”
    “I won’t
cheat you,” Jose said firmly. “I promise. You won’t have to call anyone.”
    “That man is
using that boy like his own personal slave,” Mary protested. “Jose is
sacrificing everything for his sister.”
    Otis looked
down at her. “That’s what big brothers do for their little sisters.”
    The room
around them began to blur and a moment later Mary found herself back in her
bedroom.

Chapter Eight
    Mary sat on
the edge of her bed and waited, she was not disappointed. A few minutes later
Joseph appeared. He smiled when he saw her. “So, you knew I was coming,” he
said.
    “I’m just
hoping we don’t end up in a cemetery somewhere with my name on a headstone,”
she said lightly.
    His smile faded.
“Actually, we are going to a cemetery, but your name won’t be on the
headstone.”
    He reached
out, touched her hand and in an instant they were standing in a cemetery next
to the Catholic Church and school Jose had attended when he was younger.   Mary walked slowly through the snow to a
freshly covered plot. “How did he get here?” she wondered aloud. “How did he get from caring little boy to gang member?”
    “Does it
matter?” Joseph asked. “Wouldn’t those just be extenuating circumstances, which
really don’t count in a court of law?”
    Mary closed
her eyes in shame and felt the harshness of her own words. “Yes, it does
matter,” she whispered and then she opened her eyes and turned to him. “Are you
going to show me?   Are you going to let
me see what happened and why he made the choices he made?”
    “You want me
to tie this all up in a nice little bow for you,” Joseph replied. “You want me
to prove to you that shooting you wasn’t his fault.   That he didn’t have a choice.   That deep down inside he was a good guy.”
    “Yes,” Mary
said, nodding excitedly. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want.”
    Joseph shook
his head slowly, the look on his face both patient and sad. “No, Mary, I’m not
going to do that,” he replied. “Because life is never wrapped up in a nice tidy
bow and if you choose to accept your calling, you will never know everything.”
    “But if I
knew