Fidelity

Fidelity      

by 

Zachoia Cooper

(age 12)

              

Part 1

How do you start a successful business?  Do you know?  

Dari does. She did it. 

Dari Iglesias lives in the United States now but she was born in Santa Tecla, El Salvador then moved when she was two. Her dad found a better job because in El Salvador his boss made him work too much.  So Dari’s family moved to Double Head Cabbage, Belize. It was different in Belize than in El Salvador.  In El Salvador, people spoke Spanish. In Belize people spoke a dialect of English. ( A dialect is a variety of a language that is almost like the language but its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and phrases are a little different.) Sometimes people spoke English.  Even so, the Iglesias family liked it there. Then one day when Dari was eight, Mr. Iglesias came home looking sad.

“ I have lost my job. The economy isn’t good here so I don’t know if I can find a job in Belize.”

The Iglesiases were sad because they liked Belize better than any other country. Sadly, though, they had to move.  The best place to move to was the United States so they applied to go there.  After two years the government officials let them immigrate to the U.S. So the Iglesiases packed to go.  They were a little worried.  What if they didn’t find a job? Besides 10-year-old Dari they had 11-year-old Jimeno, 9-year-old Antonio, 6-year-old Eva, 4-year-old Carl, 2-year-old Esteban, and an new unborn baby. Seven kids was a lot to feed. When they finally got to the U.S., they could only find a small house. It had  three bedrooms and a general room/kitchen plus an outhouse. The rooms were small. As soon as they were settled, Mr. Iglesias looked for a job. He looked and looked and looked.  He looked for half a year, but he still couldn’t find a job.  

“We are going to have to do something else.  Nobody wants to hire a metal factory worker.  Where should I look for a job?  I have always been a metal factory worker like me. My father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather were metal factory workers. Nobody will hire a man with no experience in any other field.” Mr. Iglesias was worried. 

“ We must trust God.” said Mrs. Iglesias as she slowly lowered herself into a chair. The baby was going to come soon. “ 1 Peter 5: 7 says ‘Casting all your cares upon him, for he careth for you.’ and Psalm 56:3 says ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in you.”

All the week Dari tried to think of a job for her dad.  She thought and thought and thought.  She called Jimeno and Antonio into her room.  She called them so they could think too.  One day Jimeno came home.  He had gone to the house of a friend from church.  

“Antonio! Dari! Meeting in my room in 60 seconds!”

Antonio and Dari went to the room. 

“ Here is a newspaper article saying that the best job to have is to start your own business!  It says that business profits are at an all-time high. It also says that lots of people also live behind their shop so they only have one building to pay for.     I wonder. . .”

The children started planning right away.

**********

“ So, if we build the building ourselves then that would lower the cost by $2,690.”

“ Exactly, Dari. If we built it ourselves, I think that we could pull this off.” replied Jimeno. 

Antonio piped up. “There are some problems. If we sold anything it would have to be something that people will come back to buy, so it can’t be something like a carpentry company.  The think we sell has to be something we can manage so it can’t be something like a pet shop store. Can you imagine having to take care of all those pets!” Antonio laughed at the thought then continued.

  What we sell has to be something that doesn’t cost too much money to buy to stock our store in the first place so we can’t have say a jewelry store. In fact, even if we did have something like a clothing store, it would be very expensive to stock it.  Not only that but people won’t really recommend a clothing store to friends. We would always be the little clothing store on the corner and most people would go to the bigger chain stores.”

“Hmmm,” Dari mused “ What kind of business is there that keeps that customer coming back for more, isn’t too expensive to stock, that people would recommend to friends, that we are capable of running, and that won’t always be in the shadow of big chain stores. Hmm.”

Dari thought. Jimeno and Antonio thought. Suddenly Dari’s eyes brightened. "I got it I got it! We could start a RESTAURANT!” 

Jimeno smiled. “ Let’s go ask Papa and Mama.”

(to be continued) 

(original and unedited)

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Signed,

Wiggles the Polliwog