"Born Worker"
By Gary Soto
Jose Was Born a Worker
People say Jose was born to work. With dirt all over him,under his fingernails and a shovel between his hands. Well those people are right. Jose enjoyed working and he was very good at it. But Jose wasn't just a good worker he was a good person in general. He had many hopes for the future and worked for all the things he wanted in life. Jose " Believed in hard work". Jose's family didn't have much money so his father constantly told him that life was hard. Jose looked to his parents for example and they were hard workers too.Because Jose worked for everything he did he didn't have much respect for those who got away with being lazy.
The Conflict
Jose comes to a big problem when his cousin Arnie comes to visit. Arnie proposes a business plan to Jose. He proposes that they start their own business to work and they split the money fifty fifty. However Jose knew better, he knew he would end up doing all the work so he says no until Arnie says thirty seventy. Arnie wasn't very helpful unless he was guiding Jose when he couldn't see but most of the time he was just criticizing Jose's work.
Then they come to an old man who says he can only afford to pay one boy but Arnie quickly convinces him that they are a team. While Jose is cleaning the old man's pool Arnie is just talking like always but when the old man comes out to check on them he pretends like he's helping. Then the man gets too close and falls into the pool!