The value of a life

It was going to be another happy day in her life. She was in the playground with other teenagers when gunmen entered the school. They kidnapped her and other 275 Christian girls. Their future? After living hidden in the jungle, being raped  and sold as sex slaves to cruel Muslims.

Statistics data

Since he was a child he had had very good grades at school. He was also good at soccer. Later, he was also a hard-working  student who had studied a demanding university degree. Nights and weekends devoted to studying. Finally, graduation day and, immediately after it, his reward: the unemployment. 

The puddle

A foursome surrounded him and walked to the patch of trees near their school. Fear made him bite one of the threatening boys. The leader took a rope and, some minutes later, Ricky was hanging from the branch of a pine-tree. On the ground,  a small puddle of warm urine.

The birthday

She had turned 54 at night. She dressed in a short black dress with a black silvery belt around her. In five minutes she would be driving to school for another tiring day. The phone rang. Her son wanted to be the first one to say “Happy birthday”. Her face shone.

High winds at school

They had never experienced such high winds in the village. Experts said it was because of the climate change. On Tuesday, just after break, a tall 25 year old pine-tree fell over showing its entangled roots and leaving a deep hole just where the base of the tree had been.

Resistance

She’d been working for the same school for thirty years. Getting up in the morning was a hard trial. Another day of laughter and endless humiliations in the classrooms. And her bosses making her feel useless and stupid. She could barely stand such an aggressive background. Barely..., but she could.

The flower box

At school, Spanish and foreign language teachers shared the office. Three walls were wrapped with books and papers. Beyond the windows there were ten tall trees with twisted branches covered of thick green leaves. The light purple orchid beside the computer looked contemptuously at the trees from behind the windows.

Deadly notebook

Goya was walking home from school when she saw a book on the ground. She used it as her diary that night. She wrote the names of some schoolmates who used to bully her. The next morning she found those boys had not gone to school because they had died. 

A moment of glory

Last year I hired a private guitar instructor. I trained very hard. My school’s principal asked me to play a song in front of my students in the Christmas Festival. When I started with the first notes, one of the strings broke. Everybody began to laugh. My performance had finished.

Butterflies

Johnny’s parents never took him to the zoo or circus. They told him that all animals should roam free. On the morning of his first day at school, Johnny was found covered in blood. He’d slit his own stomach. Somehow he recovered. “I had butterflies in my stomach,” he explained.