3 Marbles

In 1999, a terrified three-year-old hides and listens while his neighbors are being murdered. Soon after, the young boy escapes from Chilapa, Mexico with his parents under the wooden bed of an old truck. Arriving illegally in El Paso that night, his father gives Alex three marbles saying that they are very important and that someday he would understand why. That same night, his father disappears.

At age five, Alex doesn't yet understand his environment. At age six, his mother dies, and he is left on his own. At age seven, Alex learns how to hide from the older street boys who beat him for sport and at age nine, Alex stops hiding.

Julia lives with a group of orphaned kids on the streets of El Paso. She is curious about Alex because he's a loner and acts different than the other kids she knows. Julia is in the basement the day Brian, Randy, and Eric corner the smaller boy and decide to give him a beating. After witnessing what Alex does to the older boys, Julia becomes afraid of him and vows keeps her distance. Now, three years later, Julia again meets up with Alex. Although they have had little interaction over the years, they both realize that some type of bond exists between them, even if they don't understand what it is.

This is the story of a Hispanic boy and girl; forgotten children growing up together in a world with no welcome mat. Preyed upon by drug dealers, immigration agents and their own peers, Alex and Julia find a way to survive and finally leave the streets of old El Paso.

Jan R. McDonald has over the past thirty years founded and managed several high-tech companies operating in the newspaper publishing industry. He has written dozens of articles for both print and Internet-based publications, and he has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, the U.S. and Mexico. He has written several fiction short stories, a non-fiction short story, and several children's book. He is now retired and lives with his wife in Florida.