Don’t Give Up

By: Jena Murtaza

One afternoon a young boy named Mateo was really happy playing with his friends but when his mum called him in he was really upset because he wanted to continue playing, but he went in anyways.

 Mateo sat down on the dinner table and had his dinner. He lived in a really basic village where no one really had a lot of money. 

After his dinner he went to sleep but he heard his parents talking.  “ Do you think there will be enough water left for us after this drought?” asked Mateo’s mum.

“ I dont know, but lets not tell Mateo since he will eventually find out.” Replied Mateo’s dad. Mateo was in shock.

 The next morning, Mateo looked outside and decided to not tell his parents that he realized just yet so he just kept quiet. He went to the dining room and sat down on the hard, wooden chairs and ate his breakfast. After his breakfast he finally told his parents that he realized.” Mom why is there barely any water left in the river?” asked Mateo.

His mum replied, “ Oh son there has been a drought and their is not much water left we dont know how much longer we can survive.”

“ Ok well i’m going to go outside to play with my friends.” Said Mateo Sadly. 

He went outside and found his friends he told them about the drought but they already knew. 

All of sudden Mateo remembered something his grandfather said before he passed away he said “ Long ago there was a very deep hole in the ground. On day it started to rain and it filled up that hole with water. Since the soil was moist the soil slid over to cover the hole and that hole was so big the water could feed 100 people for 5 years. It still remains.” 

“ Guys we all heard the tale about the hole with water under our village from our grandparents. What if we try to find the hole for our village and we’ll become heroes.” remarked Mateo.

“ Yeah we’ve heard about the tale but do you really think it’s true?” Said Mateos friends.

“ Yeah it has to be true and if it isn’t at least we tried for our village. No matter how long it takes I will keep on digging even if all of you quit.” declared Mateo. Everyone decided to give it a try but they said that if we dont find it by the end of today then they will quit. 

So Mateo agreed and ran into his house and grabbed a few shovels. When he came back out he shouted, “ I’ve brought the shovels lets start digging”. They all started to dig and dig until one of them asked,  “ Mateo my arms are so tired do you really think there is a hole here?”

“ I told you I don’t know for sure but you guys can stop. When I become the village’s hero you will wish you continued.” Stated Mateo. The others decided to quit and Mateo would not stop no matter what and he kept on digging and digging until he got so tired that he felt like quitting. He motivated himself and continued. 

Several minutes later,  he finally found the hole he was surprised by the amount of water that was in this hole so he cried, “ Mom, Dad everyone come quick! I found the hole!”. Everyone rushed out of there houses and were so happy that they had enough water to last them until the end of the drought. Everyone congratulated and thanked Mateo for this amazing accomplishment.