“I’m fine. I was just thinking is all.”
“Okay. Just checking,” replied Robyn, knowing exactly what she was thinking about.
Deborah decided that since she really couldn’t focus on reading that maybe all she had to do was sleep her thoughts off. She asked Robyn if it was okay to turn the lights off, and when Robyn said that it was okay, she got up to turn them off and went to lay back down in her bed.
Sleep did not come easy for Deborah. She continually tossed and turned, her thoughts once again on the new neighbors and how everyone knew the embarrassing thing she had done.
Only after focusing on how great it would be to meet the neighbors and convincing herself that this whole thing would blow over did she finally fall asleep.
2
A few weeks after the Michaels family had moved in, they found themselves with plenty of things to do yet in regards to unpacking and organizing. However, the majority of the things that still needed to be taken care of were out in the garage. It was Nicholas’ and Robert’s job this particular late Sunday morning to go through the boxes left in the garage that made it impossible for anyone to park inside of.
In the back yard, almost directly behind the garage, stood a small shed where the boys were putting certain boxes that didn’t belong in the garage. One such box held outdoor sports balls and other sporting items. Another such box kept car-washing things like sponges, a bucket and soap, all of which wouldn’t be needed until spring or summer. Other boxes held items the boys had no idea what to do with. The boys even put the push lawn mower into the shed since they most likely wouldn’t be using it anytime soon.
By the time Nicholas and Robert were done with the little black shed, it was completely full. There was barely any room to walk in.
“Why do we have so much crap?” asked Nicholas disgustingly, with one hand on his hip and the other spread out, showcasing the full shed. “We don’t use half of this junk.”
“I’m not sure,” Robert sighed. “I think a lot of it was dad's stuff that he never took with him when he left.”
“Probably,” Nicholas agreed repulsively. He started shaking his head, thinking about how his dad was such a pack rat and remembering countless times when his mom asked him nicely to just get rid of it all. Usually they’d just end up arguing and then his mom would give in.
“If it’s dad’s junk, though,” Nicholas continued, “Why did we move it over here and not just leave it behind?
“Beats me,” Robert answered while shrugging, not really caring. After he thought about it for a moment, he added, “Probably because we were in such a hurry to pack everything that mom didn’t have time to sort through everything first.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
The two boys headed back to the garage to sort any last remaining boxes. They had the garage door open so that the slight breeze could reach them. Nicholas crouched down in front of a box, trying to figure out what was all in it when out of the corner of his eye he saw the neighbor kids playing in the front yard by a large tree. It looked like they were making leaf piles and jumping into them from the lowest branch that the tree had.
Looks like so much fun, Nicholas thought, wishing he could join them in their fun.
When Robert noticed his brother looking across the street for quite some time, he asked, “Hey, what are you looking at over there?”
“Just watching them play. It seems like they get to play all the time. Ever since we moved here a few weeks ago I’ve seen them playing outside almost every day,” Nicholas explained in an almost whiny voice.
“We’ll get time to play too once we’re done with all these boxes,” Robert reassured Nicholas. “And, yes, we’ll get to meet them soon,” he added, knowing that was probably at the forefront of Nicholas’ thoughts.
“I know. Do you want to go see if mom will let us go over there and join them? I mean, we don’t have a lot of stuff left to put away and it’s such a nice day.”
“We can go and ask, but she’ll probably say no,” said Robert. He then added, “I found one more box that needs to get put into the shed, but I can’t move it myself. Can you help me carry it over there? And then we’ll go inside and ask mom.”
“Sure. You know there’s like no room left though, right?”
“I’m sure we can figure something out.”
The two of them took one side each of a rather large box and proceeded to lift it up and carry it out the back door of the garage and over to the shed. When they got there they set it down so Robert could reopen the door. After the boys moved things around a bit to make room for the larger box, they went over to the box and carried it in. Once done, they shut the shed door, locked it and then headed towards the glass sliding door that separated the kitchen from the patio. That was a much quicker way to get inside the house where they figured their mom would still be.
When the boys reached the sliding door and tried to open it to go inside, the door wouldn’t budge. It was locked. They tried peeking inside to see if they could see their mom, which they did. She was on the phone.
I wonder who that could be? Nicholas pondered.
Robert and Nicholas started knocking on the door, trying to motion to their mom that they wanted to come in.
Ms. Michaels saw and heard what her two boys were trying to do, but didn’t want their dirty feet coming through the kitchen. Her boys knew the rule of taking their shoes off at the door if they’ve been working outside. Therefore, while holding the phone in her left hand, she used her right hand to point in the direction of the garage, as she also shook her head no, hoping that her sons would catch the drift.
“Ugh, it's no use,” Nicholas said. “Come on, Robert, mom’s not going to let us in.”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Robert sighed as he and his brother started making the journey through the garage and then into the house.
Right when they got to the kitchen they heard their mom finishing up the conversation.
“That sounds great. We’ll see you in a little bit. Bye.”
Before the boys even had a chance to ask who it was on the phone, Ms. Michaels immediately asked, “So did you get everything taken care of out in the garage?”
“Pretty much,” Robert replied.
“There’s only a box or two left,” Nicholas added. “We actually wanted to ask you if it would be okay to go across the street, seeing as the neighbor kids are playing outside and we haven’t met them yet.”
“Actually, boys, I just got off the phone with Barbara Harrington, the neighbor kids’ mom. She invited us to go over there after lunch so we could all meet each other.”
“Really? Did you say yes? Can we please, please, please go over there today?” Nicholas begged.
Robert asked, “Are we going to go over there, mom?”
“Calm down, boys,” their mom said. “Yes, I said that after lunch we’ll stop over, and seeing as I was making an apple pie anyway, we’ll just bring that with us. However, I do want that garage cleaned up so please finish while I make lunch.”
“Okay,” the two boys said in unison as they started heading back out to the garage.
It only took them about a half hour more to empty the rest of the boxes, organize everything that remained and then sweep out the garage.
“There. That should do it,” Robert announced.
“Yep, it looks good!” Nicholas chimed in. “Let’s hurry inside and eat so we can get to meeting our neighbors.”
As they entered the house, the sweet and savory scent of the apple pie baking in the oven made Nicholas’ stomach growl. He was really hungry and couldn’t wait to have lunch.
The quicker we eat, the quicker we can go meet the neighbors and play, he thought.
Ms. Michaels put the lunch plates on the table and they all sat down to eat. Nicholas, in particular, scarfed down the peanut butter and mixed berry jelly sandwich, grapes and mixed veggies.
“Watch it, Nicholas,” his mom warned as she noticed him eating s
o fast. She didn’t know how he could do that sometimes. It literally looked like he didn’t even chew, but inhaled the food without tasting it.
When they had all cleared their plates and put them in the sink, they started getting ready to go across the street. The boys and their mom put their shoes on, Ms. Michaels grabbed the apple pie that had recently come out of the oven and they all headed out the front door to walk across the street.
“You boys ready to meet them?” she asked as they all walked down their long, narrow, unpaved driveway.
While Robert hesitated, one didn’t have to ask Nicholas twice as he immediately said, “Yep! I’m so excited. I’ve wanted to meet them since we got here!”
---------------
“Stop it, Alex,” complained Deborah as he kept throwing leaves on top of her. “Otherwise I’m going to go tell mom.”
“Fine. You’re such a baby,” Alex teased.
Deborah didn’t mind that they were throwing leaves with one another in playful sport, but Alex was starting to get a little rough and he only focused on Deborah and not Robyn. Deborah didn’t want Alex picking on her anymore, which is why she threatened to tell on him.
“Watch out, guys. I’m gonna jump!” Robyn exclaimed as she stood on the lowest tree branch looking ready to plunge into the pile of leaves that flooded the ground.
Both Alex and Deborah moved from the center of the leaf pile that they had made so that when Robyn jumped she wouldn’t land on either one of them. Within a few seconds, Robyn was on the ground with the other two.
The three kids had been playing outside in the front yard for quite some time when their mom called them inside. “Kids, time to come inside for lunch.”
Mr. Harrington never worked on Sundays so the family always sat down for a nice lunch with one another around the rectangle, dark brown oak kitchen table. Mrs. Harrington made a taco casserole with Spanish rice and mixed fruit since Mexican was everyone’s favorite kind of food.
“Smells so good in here, mom,” Deborah said as she walked through the front door ahead of Alex and Robyn. She was kind of getting tired of playing outside and was glad it was time to eat.
“What’s for lunch?” Alex asked.
“I made taco casserole, rice and fruit,” answered their mom.
“Yummy!” Robyn said as she licked her lips.
After they had all sat down around the table and dished out the portions they wanted to eat, Mrs. Harrington told everyone that the neighbors across the street were going to come over in a little while.
“Their last name is Michaels and there’s just the mom and she has two boys.”
Even though Mr. Harrington and Alex knew that information already, it was news to the girls.
“Cool!” Robyn said with a grin.
Deborah didn’t say anything. She just sat there eating, absorbing the information and thinking about what it would be like to finally meet them. She hardly thought about them or what happened the day they moved in a few weeks ago because of schoolwork and chores around the house.
“So I want everyone to clean up a little bit right after you eat so that this place isn’t too messy when they get here,” Mrs. Harrington ordered.
“Okay,” the three kids all said in unison.
Alex, Deborah and Robyn all headed upstairs right after they put their dirty dishes in the sink and helped clean off the table. All that Robyn and Deborah had to do to their room was pick up a few things here and there as they usually kept their room pretty tidy.
Just when Deborah finished the final touches to making her bed, Mr. Harrington shouted up the stairs for them all to come down.
“They’re here now so come down, please.”
Deborah was excited yet a little nervous to meet them. She wondered if the one boy remembered what happened a few weeks back.
Hopefully not, she thought. Hopefully they’re nice too.
The Michaels were in the living room by the time the kids got downstairs. Alex was first, Robyn second and then Deborah last.
“Ms. Michaels, my name is Jonathan Harrington, but you can call me Jon, and this is my wife, Barbara, or Barb, and our son, Alex, and our girls, Robyn and Deborah,” Mr. Harrington introduced as he pointed to each person respectively.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” replied Ms. Michaels. “My name is Alicia and these are my two boys, Nicholas and Robert.”
The kids all smiled and gave a small wave to one another as the names were listed off. Nicholas and Deborah, in particular, locked eyes on each other, recognizing who the other person was, but not saying anything.
“I brought an apple pie,” Ms. Michaels added. “It’s homemade and fresh out of the oven. I figured it would be nice to share it with you all since you invited us over here.”
“That’s so nice of you to share, Alicia,” Mrs. Harrington said graciously as she smiled and took the pie from Ms. Michaels’ hands. “I’m just going to go put this in the kitchen for now so you don’t have to hold on to it.”
As she made her way back to the rest of the group, she mentioned that it might be a good idea for the kids to go outside and play while the adults chit chatted a little bit.
“That sounds lovely,” Ms. Michaels agreed. She then looked at Nicholas and Robert and added, “Go ahead and go outside for a while with Alex, Deborah and Robyn while your mom gets to know Mr. and Mrs. Harrington better. Okay?”
“Sure!” Nicholas responded with excitement.
Robert just nodded his head in agreement. He didn’t really seem too impressed and was actually a little disappointed with who the neighbor kids were seeing as they were all younger than him. However, he’d be nice and get out of his mom’s hair for a while. He knew that she had to make new friends in their new hometown just like him and Nicholas had to.
The five kids started heading out the front door to play, Alex leading the way and then followed by Robert, Nicholas, Deborah right behind and Robyn last. She had to retie one of her yellow tennis shoes otherwise she would have been in the lead because she was so excited and loved playing outside.
“So what is there to do here?” Robert asked.
“Well, we could play on our tree house/play set our dad made,” Deborah suggested.
“That sounds fun,” Nicholas replied, looking at her with a smile. “Let’s go see it.”
Robert didn’t really care for that idea too much but kept his mouth shut.
With the decision made, Alex showed the boys where the play set was in the back yard. Robyn and Deborah started jogging towards it as Alex walked behind them with the other two boys.
Nicholas kept his eyes on Deborah as she ran the whole way to the back yard.
I wonder if she knows I’m the one that waved at her? he thought.
---------------
Alicia took a seat around the kitchen table on the opposite side of Jonathan while Barbara got out the small dessert plates and proceeded to cut into the fresh apple pie.
“Would you like anything to drink with the pie, Alicia?”
“Water is fine. Thank you.”
“What about you, Jon?” Barbara continued.
“I don’t need anything,” he responded. Jonathan then turned to face Alicia and asked, “So, Alicia, what brings you to the area?”
“It’s a long story really, but basically my husband left me and the boys and I could no longer afford to stay where we were. I was only a teacher’s aide and the mortgage alone was more than I brought in. Needless to say, I found a job here in one of your local school districts as an actual teacher and they were willing to hire me and help us move over. We used to live on the other side of the state so this was a very generous offer that I couldn’t refuse.” Even though she tried to give the short version of her story, she still felt as if she was sharing a bit too much.
“I’m so sorry if that’s too much information. I have a tendency to jibber jabber at times,” she added, feeling a little bashful.
All three of the adults gave a tiny chuckle
at her remark.
“No, not at all,” Jonathan assured her. “I’m glad you shared.”
“I’m so sorry about your husband though,” Barbara mentioned as she sat down next to Alicia after dishing out three pie slices and getting Alicia her glass of water.
“It’s okay, really!” she exclaimed and then added, “He had been cheating on me for a long, long time. It was about time he left I suppose. I don’t like to think about that period in my life.”
Alicia was looking down at the pie on her plate and moving her fork in circles over it, trying not to think of the bad memories.
The three adults sat in silence for a bit, not knowing what to say next.
Wanting to make Alicia feel more comfortable, Jonathan switched topics by asking, “So how was the move? Did everything go well? Are you situated yet?”
“Whoa, slow down there a bit, Jon,” Barbara insisted. “That’s a lot of questions at one time. You sound like you’re interrogating her.” She turned to Alicia and apologized, as she took another bite of her piece of pie.
“This pie is very good by the way,” she added with a smile.
“Thanks. No, it’s okay,” Alicia said with a small laugh. “The move went fine,” she began as she looked at Jonathan. “We were able to put a lot of boxes in our SUV a few weeks ago and then shortly after that Praxton School District offered to have a moving truck do the rest.”
“Praxton, you said?” Jonathan asked, amused. “They’re a very good school district.”
“That’s what I hear and that’s what I read when I did my research on the district,” Alicia told them. “So far work has been great too. Everyone is really friendly and I feel I’m able to handle everything well.”
“That’s great!” Barbara commended.
After Alicia took her last bite of apple pie, Barbara gathered all the dirty dishes and placed them in the sink.
Jonathan continued the conversation by asking, “How are your boys handling everything?”
Growing Up Neighbors Page 3