He lives in the streets. No mom. No dad. Steals food to survive, but doesn’t like it. The other boys are bad. He doesn’t want to be bad.
He learns how to read from a homeless sir he befriended.
He would read anything and everything. His dream is to attend school.
He asks the mailman to give him some leftover pamphlets to read, and receives even more.
The mailman talks to the people in the neighborhood who start to donate books to the boy.
He’s still homeless, but now the pushes a cart around with his own personal library.
This post was written in response to the March 2: Flash Fiction Challenge, hosted by Carrot Ranch. The idea is to write a story with exactly 99 words, no more, no less, around the prompt word. This week the word is Library.
My story was inspired by (although not true to) the story of the Utah boy, who received thousands of books after the mailman in his apartment complex decided to post an ask in facebook for people to send books to the boy, who wanted to read but had no books at home.
Picture was taken from pixabay.com.
Creative Busyness 
Nicely told and I know the story of the Utah boy as well. It was all over the local news and I thought it was sweet that people answered the boy’s request.
Thanks. Yes, that story was great and somehow stuck to my mind… Today I found a way to ‘use’ it. 😉
It’s one of the few news stories that stuck in my mind too.
Interesting! Books will certainly get your character ahead of the other boys on the street.
And hopefully be his ticket out of it too. Thanks for reading.
Great story. I hope the boy finds a home for him and his books. I’m glad he has his books to keep him dreaming 🙂
Me too. If I was allowed more words I would probably get him a home and a school to go to. ;o) Thanks for reading
This is a really nice story. He was smart to ask for for the pamphlets so he would have something to practice reading and the mailman was very helpful too..shows how people are willing to help you when they know you need something.
Thank you for joining Carrot Ranch this week! What a powerful response to the challenge, and that last line about the boy’s personal library is painful yet poignant. I hadn’t heard about the Utah Boy. Thanks for sharing!
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Great flash. Really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the backstory. I laughed, though, with this boy receiving thousands of books. I am constantly trying to manage the book in our house. They breed faster than rabbits.xx Rowena
Oh, yeah. For a little while I took care of this problem by getting only kindle books, but ended up going back to paper. Reading from a screen is not as fun as from paper. Not at all… But now I’m having to manage the amount of books again… 😉
I struggle to read lengthy pieces from a screen. My eyes don’t cope well. Much easier with paper.