The football match

Alberto enjoyed playing football after school, as every boy does.

	He arrives from school as quick as he can, stores his backpack away somewhere in his room, gets change, eats lunch quickly. His mother tries to find him after lunch but is not able to see where he is. He is already in the street playing with his neighbours. The neighbourhood where Alberto lives is quite calm and peaceful. There was not much movement in the street; the children were free to
play as they wished. The neighbours even liked to see them playing around.

There was an old man called Antonio, who was very lonely and aggressive. He felt irritated with the games and noise coming from the children’s play. He complained the noise, saying he didn’t have peace within his own home. This is the reason why the children’s relationship with him was quite bad. One day Alberto kicked the ball and it fell at Antonio’s house. It actually broke his window. The boys were expecting a bad reaction from him, which came quite quickly.

Antonio opened his front door holding the ball.

— Who threw this ball? — He asked, nervously.

Alberto was trembling with fear. He stepped forward and said:

— It was me, sir. I didn’t intend to break your window. It was an accident. I am sorry.

The old man decided to keep the ball. He wanted to finish the game.

The boys sat down on the floor, feeling quite sad. One of them suggested:

— Let’s throw stones at his windows since he doesn’t want to give us the ball back.

— I feel like destroying one of his car tires — one of them replied.

— Why don’t we go into his garden and mess around with it? — Another boy suggested to the group.

Alberto comes from a spiritist family. They follow good principles; he listed to all suggestions and then said:

— We don’t have to pay back in the same way. Plus, he is right. We shouldn’t be playing with the ball here in this street! Please leave this with me. I am responsible for this, since I caused the damage. I will sort it out.

Alberto went home and told his dad what happened. He asked him to go to Antonio’s house with him.

Alberto’s dad promised to fix the window, but Antonio was still irreducible. He said he would never return the ball back to the children.

The boys were not able to play for a few days. They sat together in the pavement, played with cards, skates, bikes or just sat talking.

One day there was a new boy in the neighbourhood. He saw the group of boys talking and playing together and wanted to become friends with them.

— Hi, can I play with you guys? I am new in the neighbourhood; I don’t know anyone!

— Of course! How are you called?

— Ronald.

— Are you living here now? — Alberto asked.

— My mom is very sick. I came here to spend some time with my grandpa Antonio; he lives just there!

— Oh!

This was a bit surprise for them. No one knew the old man had family. The kids looked at each other as if asking themselves: How can we let hum play with us?

Alberto could see the other kids’ reaction; he then said before anyone else talked:

— You are more than welcome to play with us, Ronald.

They talked, talked and talked. The newbie then asked:

— Do you guys play football?

They felt a bit embarrassed to mention the truth; one of the children said:

— We haven’t played lately; we don’t have a ball.

— Oh, but it’s ok. I brought mine. I will get it for us. — Ronald said.

Alberto’s dad kindly said to Antonio:

— It’s ok. Accidents do happen all the time. He didn’t mean to break the glass window.

— Thank you for your kindness. I am sorry. I will pay for the damage. After all, it was my grandchild who caused this problem.

After this incident, Antonio and Alberto’s dad began to talk; they became friends. The boys were now really happy since Ronald was a very kind boy and good to chat to.

Therefore, the group met together and decided to talk to the adults who were chatting for a long time together.

— We studied the issue and came to a conclusion. We love playing football, but our street is not the best place for it. We decided to look for another place to play in order to avoid problems or causing more damage.

Antonio smiled at them and suggested:

— I own a big ground lot nearby. What if you transform this place into a football field?

— That’s a great idea! — Alberto’s dad agreed. — The bars and nets are on me.

— Please accept my offer. I will be extremely happy if you do. Other children will be helped as well if we make this place available for the neighbourhood — Antonio insisted.

The boys were really excited with this new idea. They ran towards Antonio and hugged him. This sealed a friendship that was just being forced between the group and the elderly man. Their new friend stood up and looked at them mysteriously. He then left the place and came back a few minutes later:

— There’s something missing here. Here is your ball!

                                                                                                                                
                                                                  Aunt Celia