Free Crunch by Rick Bundschuh

little guilty about her lack of enthusiasm—especially since the change had been brought about because of her—but she was worried.
    â€œThis is very unusual for the orphanage to make such a request on behalf of the children,” Eddie said with a pleased smile. “They tend to be very, very protective of their children—especially with none of them being able to swim. The only reason they are letting the kids visit the ocean today is because your group made such a good impression on them.”
    â€œYour presentation really inspired those boys,” Maggie added with a wink at Bethany.
    Bethany nodded and managed to smile but continued to worry on the inside. She had felt so strongly about giving little Eduardo that soccer ball. What if things kept cropping up and she never made it back to him before she had to go home?
    â€œBethany?” Eddie said, suddenly startling her from her thoughts. “You might want to bring the soccer ball with you.”
    â€œReally?” she said, trying not to sound too desperately hopeful. Kai heard it in her voice, though. He shot her a supportive grin from across the table.
    â€œI gave you my word that I would take you. What kind of Christians would we be if we didn’t keep our word?”
    Bethany nodded again—this time happily. Then she caught Monica staring at her thoughtfully, like she was trying to figure something out.
    Bethany didn’t mind. She was too busy thinking about the little boy with the dream of becoming a soccer player…and a smile that could melt an iceberg.
    Eduardo wandered over the crushed wasteland toward the rubbish pile where his family was working. Trash trucks rolled by, their hydraulic lifts hissing as raw refuse and bags of trash hit the ground.
    Eduardo watched a small group rush forward to rip into the rotting and stinking trash bags to search for bottles, cans, or bits of metal.
    Most people carried a gunnysack type bag into which they threw any recyclable materials they found. When a bag became too heavy to drag along, the worker would take the full bag back to the family’s home. There the bag was emptied into a pile to be separated later.
    The job of sorting out the various materials was done by the youngest children in each family. The child sorted the materials into large piles of glass bottles, tin cans, and other bits of aluminum. These materials accumulated until they could be sold by weight. This summer, at the age of five, Eduardo had graduated from sorting to searching for materials.
    â€œEduardo, trabajo ! ( work !),” his older brother shouted over the noise. Eduardo quickly picked up a greasy blackened bag.
    Using a stick, he poked a hole into the bag of trash. Then he rifled through the contents with his hands, holding his breath for as long as he could against the horrid odor.
    He was rewarded with four or five beer bottles, several soda cans, and half a dozen tin cans. He dropped them into his sack and poked his stick into another bag.
    This time it was a jackpot! The bag was literally full of cans and bottles. Maybe this is leftover from a party or something, he thought excitedly as bag after bag yielded similar results. He filled his sack until it was difficult for him to drag it along, let alone lift. But all Eduardo could think of was how proud his mother would be with his discovery—how proud God would be!
    Huge garbage trucks continued to sweep into the area. They backed up quickly to deposit their loads and then drove off again.
    Eduardo struggled with his overstuffed sack as it became snagged repeatedly on broken pieces of refuse or bits of rubble.
    The crashing and grinding sound of the garbage trucks was all around Eduardo as he gritted his teeth and pulled for all he was worth.
    Suddenly he saw the giant shadow of a truck loom over him. Its massive double wheels backed up over his precious sack of treasure.
    Eduardo yelled as he struggled to free his gunny sack. The roar