The Price of a Promise

Chapter 1 — 1995–1997It was 1995. My mother enrolled me in the first grade.I was a very active child and was constantly breaking something — my arm, my head, my leg. It was an ordinary, carefree life of a boy growing up without the internet or expensive toys.So I started first grade. And even though I was a real troublemaker — running across rooftops and constantly falling off rundown buildings — I actually did quite well in school.Our family was poor. There were six of us: my mother, my father, my two sisters, my brother, and me — the youngest of all. My father had lived in Russia for most of his life, so he was hardly ever home. My mother had to work constantly in bakeries to earn whatever money she could and feed her four children.It wouldn’t be right to say that my father never sent us money. Sometimes he did, but probably only about once a year. So we were constantly struggling, ba…