cement

Your dreams are like the cement. If you water it with actions, it becomes a hard concrete mass. But if you leave it exposed and unwatered, the air will easily blow it away!

This fact is that the heaviest and more burdensome load ever is neither the cement bag nor the iron rod. It is hatred.

Don't sell the warmer for an air conditioner just because its summer, for in winter, you will have to do the reverse.

Don't cheat the foundation of a house because you want to save for the roofing for at the end, you will have only roofed rubbles.

Don't only learn from the rich and successful men, also learn from the poor and those that failed woefully, for in their failures lies the secret of success as well.

The base is as strong as the foundation, the tree's trunk as sturdy as the depth it took root. And when we witness this the questions of past introspection could also be: When did certain reinforcements of that foundation get established?And why were there cracks to begin with?...that could take you so far back depending on the person, for that matter, any intelligent life-form, to make you ask:How could I compassionately hold anyone so against what I know I possibly once did myself?

Sweat makes good friendship cement.

Sam,_ Astrid yelled. __uick.__am thought he was too far gone to respond, but he somehow started his feet moving again and went up to where Little Pete was standing and Astrid kneeling.There was a girl lying in the dirt. Her clothing was a mess, her black hair ratty. She was Asian, pretty without being beautiful, and little more than skin and bones. But the first thing they noticed was that her forearms ended in a solid concrete block.Astrid made a quick sign of the cross and pressed two fingers against the girl__ neck. __ana,_ Astrid cried.Lana sized up the situation quickly. __ don__ see any injuries. I think maybe she__ starving or else sick in some other way.___hat__ she doing out here?_ Edilio wondered. __h, man, what did someone do to her hands?___ can__ heal hunger,_ Lana said. __ tried it on myself when I was with the pack. Didn__ work.__dilio untwisted the cap from his water bottle, knelt, and carefully drizzled water across the girl__ cheek so that a few drops curled into her mouth.__ook, she__ swallowing.__dilio broke a tiny bite from one of the PowerBars and placed it gently into the girl__ mouth. After a second the girl__ mouth began to move, to chew.__here__ a road over there,_ Sam said. __ think so, anyway. A dirt road, I think.___omeone drove by and dumped her here,_ Astrid agreed.Sam pointed at the dirt. __ou can see how she dragged that block.___ome sick stuff going on,_ Edilio muttered angrily. __ho would do something like this?

More than two dozen kids lined a low railing around the gazebo. They were all tied to it by a rope leash that gave them no more than a few feet of movement. Neck to rail, like tethered horses. Each of the kids was weighed down by a concrete block that encased their hands. Their eyes were hollow, their cheeks caved in.Astrid used a word that Sam had never imagined coming from her.__ice language,_ Drake said with a smirk. __nd in front of the Pe-tard, too.__ cafeteria tray had been placed in front of each of the prisoners. It must have been a very recent delivery because some were still licking their trays, hunched over, faces down, tongues out, licking like dogs.__t__ the circle of freaks,_ Drake said proudly, waving a hand like a showman.In a crusty old wheelbarrow to one side, three kids were using a short-handled shovel to mix cement. It made a heavy sloshing sound. They dumped a shovelful of gravel into the mix and stirred it like lumpy gravy.__h, no,_ Lana said, backing away, but one of the Coates kids smashed her behind the knee with his baseball bat, and she crumpled.__otta do something with unhelpful freaks,_ Drake said. __an__ have you people running around loose._ He must have seen Sam start to react because he stuck his gun against Astrid__ head. __our call, Sam. You so much as flinch and we__l get to see what a genius brain really looks like.___ey, I got no powers, man,_ Quinn said.__his is sick, Drake. Like you__e sick,_ Astrid said. __ can__ even reason with you because you__e just too damaged, too hopelessly messed up.___hut up.