Good Friends

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Jose Rodriguez had stomach cancer. The doctors told him, “You need chemotherapy to stop the cancer.”

Jose went to the hospital for chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is strong medicine. After a few weeks of chemotherapy, Jose’s hair began to fall out. Soon he had no hair.

Jose was depressed. He didn’t want people to see him. One day, his brother and three other relatives visited Jose in the hospital. Jose was surprised when he saw them.

They had no hair! “You shaved your head!” Jose said. He began to laugh. The other men laughed, too. “Please be quiet,” the nurse said, but she was smiling.

When Jose came home from the hospital, friends and relatives came to visit him. “We  want to shave our heads,” they said. “We want to look like you.” Jose shaved their heads.

Jose’s wife wanted to shave her head, too. “No!” he said.

At the hospital, Jose was depressed because he had no hair. Now, Jose is not depressed. “I’m ready for anything,” Jose says.

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''A native of the Dominican Republic, Miguel Tejada immigrated to the U.S. in 2012 and now resides in Yonkers, New York. A student at the New York Public Library’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation branch, his ESOL teacher is Michele Persaud. He would like readers to know, “When you want to achieve something, remember the importance of insight and intelligence.”