The mud on my son’s soccer cleats

Dear Delyara, My son left for boarding school this morning, and tonight I found his soccer cleats behind the water tank. They were packed with dry red mud from the field where he plays with the neighborhood boys. I sat outside with a brush and cleaned them even though he will not need them here for another three months. His mother says boarding school will give him opportunities we never had. She is right. The school has laboratories, computers, a library, and teachers who speak about universities in other countries as if they are real places a child like ours could reach. Still, when the bus pulled away this morning, he pressed his hand to the window and tried not to cry because he is thirteen and thinks tears will embarrass me. I waved until the bus turned the corner, then came home and found his cup beside the sink, his towel behind the door, his shoes where he always leaves them. I cleaned the cleats until the black leather showed again, but I left a little mud inside the grooves. I wanted something from home to travel back with him.