Whistle Against the Storm / Rio Ch 4

The construction drags on.
Every day, there's something in the way.
Money runs out fast.
Promises of help turn out to be empty.
The walls stay half-built,
and sometimes it feels like
the whole thing could collapse any minute.
But Miguel keeps going. He wakes up at dawn,
walks the same streets where he's spent his entire life.
Sometimes, those old memories come back,
like shadows.
When he was younger,
he was part of that world.
Small jobs, favors, nothing big.
But enough to get noticed by the wrong people.
The same streets he walks now,
trying to build something good,
were once the scene of different business.
He sees faces that recognize him.
Some smile with a kind of knowing look,
others shake their heads,
like nothing's changed.
Miguel feels the weight of those stares.
He knows he was part of it once,
but now he tries to leave it behind.
Some things, though, don't disappear.
The scars stay, even if they can't be seen.
Sometimes he wonders if any of this will matter.
If a community center can really erase the past.
But then he thinks of the kids,
what they lost when the school closed.
He doesn't stop.
He can't afford to.