Alex: "I think if you don't win, the judges are idiots."
I smiled. I took a picture of the room full of kids with their inventions and sent it to her.
Alex: "Are you alone?"
Me: "I'm with my mom and dad, but they're talking to other parents."
Alex: "Do you want me to come?"
Me: "Can you?"
Alex: "My mom can drive me. I'll be there in ten minutes."
Me: "What if I don't win?"
Alex: "Then I'll take you to get something to eat so you feel better."
Me: "And if I win?"
Alex: "Then I'll take you to get something to eat to celebrate."
Me: "It's the same answer."
Alex: "Because both options end the same. Win or lose, I'm going to be there."
The phone went dark. I sat with the screen dark in my hands, waiting.
When they called us back to the main hall, Alex was already there. She appeared through the crowd in her gray sweatshirt and her usual glasses, and sat beside me in the back row without saying anything. Just her hand squeezing mine.
"And the first prize," the announcer said, his voice echoing through the speakers, "goes to..."
The silence was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"Leonardo Bennett, for his variable-precision robotic arm."
I didn't hear the applause. I didn't see Mark hug Susan or the judges approach with the medal. I only felt Alex's hand squeezing mine and her voice, barely a whisper in my ear.
"I told you you were going to win."
The medal was gold metal, with "Robotics Competition for Young Inventors" engraved on the edge. I held it in my hand, feeling its weight, its coldness, its permanence.
"Are you going to put it on?" Alex asked with a smile that hid nothing.
"At home. When I'm alone."
"Why?"
"Because if I put it on now, I'll look ridiculous."
"You won't look ridiculous. You'll look like a winner."
I hung it around my neck. Alex looked at me, and in her eyes was something I hadn't seen before. It was pride. Pride at having been there, at having helped. Pride that I had won.
"Can I borrow it for a second?" she asked.
I gave it to her. She hung it around her neck, stood in front of me, and said with a seriousness that wasn't feigned:
"How does it look on me?"
"It looks good on you. But it's mine."
"I know. That's why I'm giving it back."
She gave it back to me, but for a second before letting go, her fingers brushed against mine and stayed there, as if they didn't want to leave.
The check was for exactly five hundred dollars. I looked at it in my hand, feeling its weight that had no weight, its value that was more than money.
"What are you going to do with that?" Mark asked as we walked to the car.
"Save it," I said. "For when I turn sixteen."
"For what?"
"To start something. An investment fund, or a company. I don't know yet. But I want to have it when the time comes."
Mark looked at me.
"You know? When I was your age, my father gave me a hundred pesos to buy something I liked. I bought a sticker album. I put all the stickers in a notebook, sorted them by team, position, number. When I finished, I realized what I had liked wasn't the album. It was sorting. Finding a place for everything."
"And what did you do?"
"I became an accountant. And then a businessman. And then, a father." He put his hand on my shoulder. "You already know what you want. That's more than I knew at your age."
"And what do you want now?"
"For you to be happy. The rest will come."
We got in the car. Alex had gone with her mom, but before leaving, she'd sent me a message: "When you have the company, I'm going to be the first to buy your stock."
I replied: "I'm not selling stock. I'm making robots."
She: "Then I'm going to be the first to have a robot."
Me: "I'll give it to you."
She: "Don't give it to me. I'll buy it from you. That way I help you grow."
Me: "I don't need you to help me grow. I just need you to be there."
She: "I'll do that too."
I put the phone away. Outside, night was beginning to fall over the city, and the lights of the buildings were coming on one by one.
Night, in My Room
The medal hung on the wall next to the drawings I had made during the summer. The check was in a box with the savings I had accumulated since I arrived in this world. It wasn't much, but it was mine. It was the result of hours of work, sleepless nights, an idea that had grown without anyone watering it.
Mark entered without knocking, as always. He brought two glasses of milk and a bag of cookies.
"Can I ask you something?" he said, sitting on the bed.
"Sure."
"Why wait until you're sixteen? You could start earlier with what you know, with what you can do."
"Because at sixteen I can work legally. I can open a bank account in my name. I can start investing without my parents having to sign every paper."
"And if the business doesn't work out?"
"Then I'll learn, and I'll try something else. And another. Until it works."
Mark looked at me, and in his eyes I saw respect.
"You're going to be a great businessman, Leo. But more than that, you're going to be a great man."
"How do you know?"
"Because you already are."
He stood up, kissed my forehead, and left. I stayed in bed with the medal shining on the wall and the check in the box, waiting for the day I could turn it into something more.
The system, which no longer recorded, recorded nothing.
But if it had, it would have noted:
Leo Bennett: Gold medal, five hundred dollars, and a plan.
Alex Dunphy: The first to believe, and to bet.
Mark Bennett: Proud, even if he doesn't say it.
The path continues.
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Leo won. Gold medal. Five hundred dollars.
Alex was the first to congratulate him. The first to lend him her money. The first to believe.
And when Leo said he wanted to save until he was sixteen to start his business, she said: "When you have your company, I'll be the first to buy your stock."
Do you think Leo's decision to wait until he's 16 is a good idea, or could he start now and build wealth sooner? 🥇💰🤔
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