Esperanza

Esperanza was Lucia Ortega's kind and adventurous childhood friend. She repeatedly shared her lunch with a cruel boy named Juan, even when he repaid her generosity with stones, stolen towels, and mockery. Esperanza believed that love offered to another person was never wasted. While trying to retrieve Juan's shoe from a branch over a ravine, she fell to her death. Lucia struggled with anger and blame, but honored her friend's example by forgiving Juan and giving him Esperanza's treasured shell necklace. Years later, that same necklace appeared on the desk of a halfway-house director. Juan had become a man who offered patient hope to former prisoners and other outcasts. Esperanza's short life showed how persistent kindness can continue changing someone long after its giver can see the result.