The Missing Cobras
    
“Miguel, come quick!”
    
Miguel leapt out of bed and raced out of the open door of his clay hut, across the short stretch of tough, gray-green grass, and into his abuela’s hut. His abuela was standing there, barefoot, her gray hair a tangled mess. She looked like she had gotten little or no sleep.
    
“What happened, abuela?” Miguel asked, coming to his abuela’s side.
    
“The snakes are gone,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and scratchy, motioning toward the empty golden cage. “They’re gone.”
    
“They can’t be gone,” Miguel said, getting down onto the earthen floor on hands and knees, looking around in all the nooks and crannies, tracing his hands along the cool metal of the cage. “They were in here when you went to sleep, right?”
    
His abuela nodded, saying nothing and staring blankly at the clay wall ahead of her.
    
“I’ll find them,” Miguel told his abuela, “don’t worry.”
    
He reached out and held her wrinkled hand for a moment before dropping it and leaving the hut, thinking hard. Then he heard cries of terror and took off running down the dirt road, toward the schoolhouse.

When he rounded the bend, Miguel found the two huge cobras, slithering toward the students who were huddling together, their eyes wide with fear. Miguel stepped between the children and the snakes, holding out his hands.

“They won’t harm you,” he assured them. “They belong to my abuela.”

The children’s shoulders relaxed, and Miguel waved a goodbye over his shoulder, the snakes draped around his neck as he set off back down the winding dirt path, the sun setting on the horizon and spreading shades of gold, violet, pink, and orange across the sky, outlining the village in gold and pink.

When Miguel entered his abuela’s hut, he opened the cage and let the cobras slither inside, latching the doors behind them.

“Thank you, Miguel,” his abuela said, a smile spreading across her weathered face. “You found my cobras.”

Then he took a step back and put his hands on his hips, proudly admiring his work. He had found the missing cobras.