Symbolism

There used to be a mother and her son. His dad left when he was little, and they were both living in a house about ten miles away from town by a large field. The mother worked at a small sawmill managing books, and the son spent every weekday going to Mrs. Getrid's second-grade class.

But there was one thing that Mrs. Getrid never understood. Every day the students would go home to eat lunch, but the son never had his mother pick him up. He always walked away from school even though his house was miles away from the school. He would always come back, hungry, and would continue school like normal.

The mother never even knew that the children came home for lunch. She never really paid attention to her own son, and the son knew this. But nonetheless, she worked the books for the sawmill every day managing where the money went. She was good at her job too, but there was always one aspect of the books that she would never check. That was her salary. She was quite embarrassed by how much she made, and she only knew that it was enough money to let her get by with her son.

But one day she was daring enough to open the book that carried all of the worker's salaries. She was appalled. She went to go to the file cabinet during lunchtime, and she saw her son sitting with the book in his hands. She quickly took the book and scolded him for not being at school. She sent him back right away. But when she opened the book, she saw that her salary was twice as much as it should have been and that her old salary had been scratched out with crayons.

books = the son's love for his mother