Paola was five and Paola hated shoes.

  "Paola, how many times do I have to tell you to put your shoes on!" her mother would shout at her. And, Paola would pout and put her shoes on, but she definitely didn't like it.

  It wasn't as easy to run and jump and kick while wearing shoes. They were like weights tied to the end of her feet. She wanted to fly, to go as fast and as far as she could.

  This resulted in a regularly banged and beaten up Paola. Bumps, bruises and scratches were all normal affairs for her. She didn't even cry when her mom took her bandages off anymore (although she did request they come off in the bathtub where they weren't quite so sticky).

  Usually, Paola's mom only made her wear shoes when they left the house. But, Paola's new house was different.

  "You need to keep your shoes on inside," Paola's mom chastised her. Her forehead was all folded up with wrinkles as she said it. Paola's mom's forehead only did that when she was worried about something.

  Paola's mom's forehead did the folding thing all the time when she looked at their new house.

  Paola liked their new house, though! It was was so much bigger than the apartment they used to live in. Paola had four whole brothers and sisters, all of them bigger than her. She used to have to share a bedroom with her two sisters, while her two brothers shared a room and her mom slept in the living room on the fold out couch. But now! They all had! THEIR OWN BEDROOMS!

  It was awesome!

  And, the house was so tall!

  There was a huge staircase with a shiny railing and it went up and up, turning around in the middle, to the second floor. And, their mom's bedroom was in THE ATTIC! But, the attic was cool and nice, unlike any attic Paola had seen before. It had thick warm carpet and sloped walls and a creepy crawlspace and honestly Paola was a little jealous of her mom for getting the coolest room in the whole house, but she guessed it was fair since sleeping on the fold out couch was very not fun. So, probably, Paola's mom deserved the attic.

  But, Paola's mom didn't like how cold the house was in the winter and how hot it was in the summer and how the windows got little water droplets on the inside sometimes, and the black stuff that grew in the corners of the bathroom and how the floors were all wavy and uneven and even chewed up in some spots.

  "The old owners had dogs," her mom had explained when she asked why the stairs looked like a baby had gnawed on them. Her mom looked angry, like the old owners shouldn't have had dogs. Which didn't make much sense to Paola, because she thought her mom liked dogs.

  Paola didn't care about those things, anyway. And, she didn't care that her mom told her she needed to wear shoes inside now. She LOVED her new house and she hated shoes. So long as she didn't get caught, she was going to go in not wearing shoes in her new house.

  Until the day she finally understood why her mom kept telling her to put her shoes on.

  She had been flying down the stairs (FLYING!), going so fast, her feet made thump thump thump sounds as she ran down each step full speed. She had started at the top of the stairs and she was going to run as fast as she could all the way down and to the back of the house and hit the spinning recliner as hard as she could.

  Pedro said she couldn't knock the recliner over, that it was stable whatever that meant. She meant to prove him wrong and she was determined.

  At the bottom of the stairs, she made a hard u-turn, going up on the balls of her feet, putting all her strength into controlling her turn so she wouldn't fly through the front door that sat just a few feet from the bottom of the steps.

  But, her little foot hit a part of the floor that was damaged, a whole board that was half missing, chewed on by the mysterious dogs. A pain like she had never experienced before shot up her leg.

  With a little squeak, she collapsed and rolled, the speed of her flight carrying her across the entryway to fetch up against the front door.

  Paola cried and clutched her foot, big tears rolling down her cheeks. She cried and cried, but no one heard her, even when she made her voice big and loud to try and get someone's attention.

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  Pedro was playing video games with his headphones on in the back of the house. Prima had her music playing loud in her bedroom upstairs. And, Pablo and Pamela and her mom weren't home.

  Paola laid on the floor clutching her throbbing foot and considered the fact that she would surely die right there at the front door. Her mother would come home and find her and cry a river of tears and then surely obliterate her siblings (at least the ones that were home) for not saving Paola from certain death. It would be just punishment, but Paola would still be dead, so her mom would be still sad forever after.

  Then, there was a knock on the front door above her. Through her tears, Paola looked up.

  There was a man peering down at her through the front door's window with concern.

  "Are you okay, little girl?" he asked.

  "No," she wobbled.

  "Do you need help?" he asked.

  "Yes," she said with a trembling bottom lip.

  The door opened outward and Paola tumbled back, the door suddenly gone from behind her. A strong arm caught her before she could hit her head on the porch.

  She looked up into the strange man's face. He seemed nice. He was smiling at her and he didn't look scary. His arm was warm in the cold air that had rushed through the open door. He was very careful with her as he moved her back inside and closed the door behind them.

  "Can I see?" he asked, pulling a little pen light out of one of the pouches on his belt and holding it up.

  Paola wanted very much to play with the pen light, but she understood that he probably needed it to see her foot in the dim light of the entryway. She nodded, her chin still wobbling precipitously.

  His big hands were very gentle on her tiny foot. His fingers were rough like sandpaper and when he prodded too close to where the pain started, she yelped and pulled her foot back, betrayed.

  "I'm sorry," he said with big dark brown eyes. "You have a big splinter in your foot. But, I think I can get it out safely."

  "You can?" she asked.

  "Yes," he said, pulling a pair of tweezers from another pouch on his belt.

  Paola was SO BRAVE and held still as the nice man pulled the splinter from her foot and showed it to her. It was HUGE and it even had BLOOOD (HER BLOOD!!!) on one end. Then he let her pick out what bandage she wanted and she picked one with unicorns and rainbows, because obviously that one was by far the best bandage when compared to dinosaurs and superheroes.

  Afterward, while Paola was still looking at the bloody splinter in her hand with wonder, the nice man stood up and looked at the floor with the same kind of frown Paola's mom usually wore when she looked at the house.

  "These floors are in bad shape, huh?" he said thoughtfully.

  Paola nodded solemnly. "Mommy said I have to wear shoes inside, even though I never had to at the old apartment," Paola said hotly. Then, she looked down at the splinter with a thoughtful look. "I guess I get it now, though," she said sadly.

  The man turned to look at her. "Hm. I think I'm even better qualified to fix your floor than I was to fix your splinter," he said.

  "Really?!" Paola said with excitement. She bounced back up to her feet and it only hurt a little. "Mommy would be so happy!" she squealed.

  "Excellent!" the man said with a loud clap of his hands. "I think I have everything I need in my truck, but I'll go check to make sure. Can you wait right here?" he asked.

  "Yes, sir!" Paola said with a little salute that always made grown ups laugh. This grown up was no exception. He smiled and laughed at her and she giggled back.

  When the man returned from the white van that he had left parked in the street, he had a drill with a huge drill bit, a saw, a crowbar, two sawhorses, a sander, and a few big planks of wood.

  "This looks like oak, don't you think?" he asked curiously, scratching at a bit of floor that had been chewed on and torn up and was naked of any varnish.

  "I think so," Paola agreed, though she didn't have the foggiest idea of what oak looked like.

  The man started to fix the broken board, talking her through everything that he was doing. He started by showing her how to drill two holes in the damaged board and then use his saw to cut a small piece of wood away. It made a little open section where he could wedge his crowbar and pull up the plank without damaging the other floorboards.

  Once he had the piece of wood up, he looked through the hole straight into the basement.

  "Oh, wow," he breathed, frowning into the hole. Paola thought that probably was a bad 'wow' but she wasn't totally sure.

  Ignoring the lack of subfloor, the nice man then showed her how he could use the old broken floorboard to measure his new floorboard. He let her help him balance the new board on the two sawhorses outside and hold it in place while he sawed along the little lines he had made with pencil.

  He even let her use the hammer to hammer in some of the nails! His hammer was super heavy, but it made a really good THWACK! sound when she hit the nail with it.

  "Wow, you just might be the next Handyman," the man laughed and Paola laughed along.

  The hammer vibrated in her hand. It felt pleased with her. And she was was happy that she had made it happy.

  When they were done, the damaged board was gone and in it's place was a much lighter piece of wood.

  "I didn't get a chance to sand it, but I think your mom will probably be home soon," the man said with a sad look at his electric sander. "How about this? I'll come back tomorrow and finish up the rest of the floor," he suggested with a smile.

  "That sounds great! But, wait. I'll be at school. I won't be able to help," Paola said. She looked down at her feet, now safely encased in pink glitter light up sneakers.

  A big warm handed landed on her shoulder and she looked up into the stranger's smiling face.

  "It's okay," the man reassured her with a wide grin. His teeth were very white and very straight and it seemed like maybe there were too many of them for his mouth. "You can definitely help me again some time soon, Paola."

  "Okay!" Paola smiled up at the man.

  The man smiled back at her.

  Before the end of the week, every damaged floorboard in their house was replaced.