Freddie Ramos Takes Off by Jacqueline Jules Page B

smelly dumpster, not in it. My name and 29G, Starwood Park Apartments were written on the front in big black letters. There were lots of stamps on the box but no return address. I checked again for a card. Nothing.
    All I knew was that the box came in the mail.

    It wasn’t much to go on.
    What would my dad say about getting magic shoes in the mail?
    Whenever I couldn’t figure something out, I always tried to imagine what my father would tell me if he was around. It wasn’t easy because I didn’t have much time with him. He was off being a soldier most of my life. And then he wasn’t there at all.
    â€œAny luck with the box?” a voice above me asked.
    I looked up to see Mr. Vaslov. He had a bag of garbage in his hand.
    â€œNo. It didn’t tell me much of anything.”
    â€œMight as well give up, then,” Mr. Vaslov said. “It’s getting late.”
    I looked at my watch. Mom would be getting off the train soon. I thought about using my Zapato Power and running back to the station to surprise her. But then I thought about what I would say when Mom saw my new purple sneakers. I hadn’t quite decided yet. What if she wouldn’t let me keep them if I didn’t know where they came from?
    â€œI’d better go home,” I told Mr. Vaslov. “Mom likes to see me doing my homework when she comes through the door.”

4. A Pretty Regular Night for A Superhero

    Ever since Mom finished her classes at the community college and got a better job, she’s been big on school. I have to show her my papers, and we read chapter books together. I like reading at bedtime, but school didn’t take up so much of my life when I didn’t have to do my homework every night.
    By the time I opened the door to 29G and gave a carrot treat to Claude the Second, it was 5:45. I took off my purple sneakers and put them under my bed. Mom wouldn’t notice anything weird about me going around the house in socks. I figured I could tell her about the purple sneakers when she noticed them. Every once in a while, she looks under my bed, so the conversation would come up sooner or later.

    Then I hurried to get my backpack open and my books on the table. But it was hard to concentrate on my homework. I kept thinking about running in my purple shoes, flying on the ground like a plane with giant wheels. Zapato Power! My whole life was about to change! And not in any of the ways Mom had promised when we moved into Starwood Park at the beginning of the school year. She had said we were going to spend more time together and my grades were going to get better. That stuff happened. But Mom hadn’t predicted this. I had purple shoes that made me faster than a train. Was this my chance to become a hero like my dad?
    â€œHow about pizza for dinner?” Mom asked when she got home. “I’m too tired to cook.”
    â€œPizza’s fine with me.” I jumped up and handed Mom the phone. We had the pizza number on speed dial. That was one of the best things about Mom having a better job. Good food for dinner wasn’t a problem anymore.
    While we waited for the delivery, Mom looked over my math problems and my spelling words.
    â€œYour handwriting looks a lot neater, Freddie. I’m glad to see you’re taking your time.”
    I was happy to see Mom smiling. She wasn’t much of a smiler before we moved to Starwood Park. Her brown eyes always looked worried the way my friend Maria’s did when we went to the street fair and rode the Ferris wheel. Maria is afraid of heights, and my mom is afraid of too many bills. She also worried a lot when I was little because Dad was a soldier.

    I worried, too. The first time he went away, he came back just fine. The second time, he didn’t. But everyone at his funeral called him a hero. That was two years ago.
    I finished all my homework before dinner, so Mom and I had time to watch a couple of TV shows together after my