1 When we were young

Sally was my neighbor. I'll never forget the first time I laid eyes on her. She was my age, had long, sparkling blonde hair. Her freckles were like the stars in the sky, and the only thing she wasn't wearing gracefully was the long frown she had on her face.

It didn't suit her. Her parents were moving all their furniture and clothes and belongings inside, from their truck and into the front door that was wedged open with a thick and golden encrusted copy of Moby dick.

Sally clung onto her stuffed animal with both her arms, as if it would make the situation any better. Maybe if she held it tight enough she would be happier, I'm sure she thought, maybe if she closed her eyes hard enough things would go back to how they were.

I was at my yard, behind our long and overgrown tree, with it's weeping branches that touched the ground and scratched the grass with it's leaves. She couldn't see me behind it's thick and moss covered trunk, but I could see her.

As her parents walked back and forth, in and out the house, she started to lose her patience. I could tell by her rapid foot tapping and tightened grip on her poor plushie bear.

"Mommy! Daddy!" she pouted, face red from crying to herself. Her father, with sweat on his brows and drenched in his clothes, was holding onto the couch with Sally's mom, who was carrying the other side of the couch.

Her mother wasn't nearly as disheveled as he was, and she was just as pretty as Sally. Except for not having freckles, they looked very much alike. Her father was breathing like his life depended on it. "Yes Sally?" she said, tired and battered from carrying furniture.

"I wanna go home" she pleaded. She had just gotten there and she already wanted to go back. Her father's frustration was palpable. I guess she cried during the whole trip too, probably kicking the chair and pouting and throwing a fit.

He put all the weight of his side of the couch on one hand to let his other hand free. He put it on her shoulder and rubbed it, trying to comfort the six year old.

"This is our new home." he said, drawing his hand back to the couch he was carrying. "You'll get used to it soon, I promise."

Sally didn't react well to this, she just cried louder and wished even more to see her old friends and old neighborhood and her old home.

"Listen, I have an idea." Sweat beads from his forehead dripped to his scruffy beard. "Why don't you go over to some of neighbors houses and introduce yourself to the other kids? I'm sure you'll find some nice friends, just like the ones you had!"

She stomped her left foot. "I don't want new friends, I want my old ones!"

His arms started to wobble with the weight of the couch he held onto for far too long at this point. So he walked backwards into the house and said loudly "Promise Daddy you'll try your best! Now do be a good girl and listen to your father!"

His words muddled from the inside of the house but that was pretty much the gist of it. Sally took some steps here and there, probably wondering if she wanted to even try it or not.

And I suppose she decided to go ahead and try it because she went across the street to the other side of the road and knocked on that door. But that was Ms. Riddles' house and she was an old hag who had cats and dogs and a crap all over her house but no children lived in it. You need to be able to leave your house to have children living in it and that was something she couldn't do.

Every weekday her son Tommy would drop off the news paper that the newsboy would throw at her driveway, and pick up her mail that the mailman left in her mailbox. On Saturday her daughter did the same thing, and even then, she would forget sometimes. But not Tommy, he was like clockwork.

I knew she wasnt going to get much out of Ms.Riddles. When she cracked that door open, I'm sure the spider webs split and tore apart from in-between the screen door and the main door, because she only ever used the back door which was under her back patio.

Her dogs rushed to the door and her cats meowed at poor little Sally, who just wanted to make some new friends.

"Oh, hush now!" Said old Ms.Riddles as she shooed away the dogs with her rolled up news paper. "May I help you?"

Sally looked straight down at her toes, not knowing what to say. She was quiet with strangers compared to how she was with her parents, even just minutes earlier. "Uhm... my name is Sally. I just was..." she couldn't think of anything to say.

The old Ms. Riddles looked at the young girl from the rarely used screen door and smiled. "Hello dear. You must be the new neighbors. Well, my name is Ms. Riddles. And bother, I can't leave my house, pardon me. But, it was quite lovely meeting you and a joy it is to have you here. Are you new to Murfreesboro?"

At a loss for words Sally nodded abruptly without saying a word.

"They are quite nice here." She said, gesturing to the other homes. "Just do be careful with some of the other kids in this neighborhood, they are a mighty bunch in numbers, after all." The cats meowed even louder and dogs barked in retaliation to the cats complaints. "Oh, dear me, it must be time to feed my babies. Do take care love. And say hello to your folks for me."

Sally went away with nothing after that encounter. She was nowhere closer to making a new friend. With heavy shoulders she meandered over to another door. This time it was the Ramirez house. They were a Mexican family that had ten children ranging in age from 2 to 16. To say they stayed busy would be an understatement.

Every evening you could smell the scent of spicy foods and meats being cooked. It was an intoxicating smell that made me hungry every time I smelt it.

Sally, with her plush being dragged around, introduced herself to Mr. Ramirez. His English was rough and he always had construction in his house with his work boots laying outside front on an old tattered mat. He was polite along with his wife. But his children were quite the opposite.

Once she said her name, the Ramirez parents called over the kids to introduce themselves. They ran over, yelling and hollering down the cramped house, stepping over one another and shoving each other around.

"You're new here?" said the eldest daughter with the youngest in the house, a two year old baby in her arms. "I'm Sasha, and this is Natalia. It's nice to-."

"And I'm Juan!" interrupted the younger brother.

Then she was bombarded with names.

"My name is Sergio."

"Agustin!"

"Estephanie!"

"Esteban."

"Carlos!"

"Jesús, but you call me chuy!"

"Ignacio!"

"Lucy."

The avalanche of names churned her young brain inside out. I'm sure she felt there was no way to remember all those names at the rapid speed she heard them. Out of all of them, one kid was missing. The one who was our age.

"Don't be rude Barney! Come here and say hi to our new neighbor!" Yelled out Sasha, caressing the baby still. From behind a door peeked out a kid. His footsteps lingered and felt heavy on him as he looked down to the ground, probably staring at his shoes as he normally would when in an awkward situation or meeting new people.

With all his strength he looked up at precious Sally with his glazing brown eyes.

"My- my name is Barnabas." he said quietly, barely loud enough for Sally to hear. "B-but you can call me Barney if you want. Everyone calls me that."

He nodded and reverted his attention back to the ground in comfort. Sally must have felt intrigued because she stared longest at him. Now, I knew Barnabas, he wasn't much of a conversatioal person. He was reserved, shy and awkward, but most of all he didn't like talking. I had known him for his whole life, pretty much, and even I had barely heard him say anything.

There were still houses left, including my own, so Sally waved them goodbye and went off back to our side of the street to see another house and do another introduction. When I saw cute little Sally walk over to my direction and get ever closer to my own home, my heart raced with every step she made.

I wanted to get to know her. I didn't know anything about her, where she was from, what she liked and what she disliked. but if she wanted to be friends with me I'd happily make sure to help her with that, because I wanted to be friends with her.

I debated whether going out from behind the tree calmly or jumping over to her. If I played it cool maybe she would think I was smart and had it all figured out at my age. But I didn't want her to think that I was boring or uninteresting. I would have no chance of knowing her then. Although, If I jumped out at her she might think I was too eccentric, and perhaps even unstable.

I went for a sort of middle ground and meandered over to her, with a playful few steps here and a couple of awkward few steps there. I kept a straight face and pulled out my hand for a shake. She was right in the middle of the pathway to the house. Her face looked confused, probably by how well equipped I looked to talk to her and how put together I was.

"My name is Chadwick Jones! Nice to meet you!" I said. The excitement in my heart leaked out into my voice.

She gingerly shook my hand with her soft and tender hand. Her fingers were warm and felt like bliss. I didn't want to let go of her hand, I wanted to keep it for myself forever and ever. But she eventually retracted it back slowly, still looking confused by how cool I was.

"My name is Sally." She said.

"Sally." I said back. A beauty and suiting name for such a girl.

"Yeah, Sally." She waited for me to say something while I waited for her to say something. We both stood there, waiting for each other to say something, but my emotions filled my mouth and took the words away from me. She looked around the air for something to say when she saw the tree I was standing behind and the tree house on top of it.

My father had built it just a year ago. It was my getaway spot.

"Wow. Is that your tree house? Its so cool!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah it is." I pointed at it as if she didn't see it already. "Wanna go inside?"

We walked up to the tree. Its branches and leaves loomed over us with the tree house above our heads. The rolled up ladder was tied up far beyond our reach.

"How are we gonna get up there?" she asked curiously.

I pulled a rope that was wrapped around a metal hook. The ladder swung down and flopped to the ground, just before us.

"Like this."