Hello! I didn’t see you there. Are you new here? My name is Maria. Do you want to race? It’s my favorite thing to do. No one ever races with me though. I don’t have many friends. Here comes my mom gotta go.

“Why don’t you go wrestle with the other bulls like a good little girl?”

“But, I don’t want to Mom! Besides only boys are supposed to fight” Mom sighs.

“What am I ever going to do with you my little toro?”  I smile.

You don’t have to race with me right now, but I’m going to run. I run in circles, I run and run and run.  Do you see those people over there? They are picking a bull to go to the Corrida de Toros and fight the matador. I’m just going to keep running though. I will never get picked. A man walks over to me and ties something around my neck.

“Let me go!” I shriek. He just pulls and pulls until I am in a room with hay. The room starts moving and making noise. Finally, it stops. When I come out I see a sign that says Bienvenido a Madrid. Then the man slips the rope over me again. After that he takes me to a place. Oh no! It’s the Plaza de toros! I don’t want to fight the matador. 

“SOMEBODY HELP ME!” I exclaim.

“Silencio!” The man yells. He pushes me into the Plaza de toros. I walk in and look around. The ground is sandy. There are lots of people around and they are all staring at me.

“Here comes the Picador!” The picador walks around a little with a flag.  I think the flag might be the capote. At first I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Then I realize he wants me to run. I run into the flag then he moves it. I do this over and over and over. Then he stabs me in the back!

“AAAAAAHHHHHH” I scream in pain. I know this will not be the only time I am stabbed. The banderillas are coming soon. They will hurt the most of all. Next I see the Matador. He takes his Capote and walks around with it. I run into and follow it over and over and over. Then as I’m running he moves the Capote and I keep running but I am trying to stop myself. Then the Banderilleros  stab me with the banderillas.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH” I scream. This time even louder. I’m trying not to fall down on my back because I know that then the Matador will strike. Then the Matador trades out his capote for a muleta. I realize what I have to do. I don’t even give him time to pull out his Estocada. I charge I buck, kick, stomp and scream. The Matador isn’t dead, but he’s injured. A man comes and takes me back to the moving room. When it stops I realize I’m at home. I’m happy to be home. Did you miss me? The Toreros were so scary. People start coming from everywhere to see me. Everyone is afraid that I would kill the matador. At the same time they think I’m kind of cool. I hope the matador I hurt is okay. I didn’t want to hurt him, I just...did what I had to do.

Will you race me? You will ! Really? Let’s go! I hope I can spend a long time racing. I don’t know if I’ll ever be taken to the ring again. If I do I won’t hurt the matador. At least, I hope not. For, now I’m just going to run and enjoy myself.  But, also I hope I don’t have to go to the Plaza de toros ever again.