Growing Up Neighbors

by Frances Hoelsema

  “Good, I think,” she replied. “They seem to be doing okay in school. I’m just a little worried about Nicholas because he had so many friends where we used to live. I just hope he can make some good friends here.”

  “How old are your boys?” Barbara asked.

  “Robert’s fourteen and Nicholas is ten. They’ll both be another year older before I know it too.” Alicia mentioned, as it seemed like her kids were growing up so fast.

  Where has the time gone? she thought to herself before mentally returning to the conversation at hand.

  Barbara nodded in agreement to that sad, but true fact. “Alex is ten too,” Barbara mentioned. “I’m sure they’ll get to be good friends. He’s more than welcome, you’re all more than welcome, to come over anytime.”

  “Thank you.”

  Alicia took a sip of her water and then asked, “How old are your girls?”

  “Deborah is eight,” Jonathan answered, “And Robyn is six.”

  “That’s nice,” Alicia commented. “All three of your kids seem very nice, and I love that they all have such beautiful blond hair and blue eyes.”

  Jonathan and Barbara giggled.

  “It’s a Dutch thing,” Barbara explained. “You’ll come to find out that there are a lot of Dutch people over here.”

  “Okay,” Alicia laughed.

  Alicia, Jonathan and Barbara sat around the table, occasionally glancing outside at the children, just getting to know one another. They discussed the schools their children were going to and how even though they lived across the street from one another that Nicholas goes to a different elementary/middle school than where Alex, Deborah and Robyn go since their street was the dividing line. They also talked about how Robert liked high school, the jobs that the Harringtons had, as well as many other things. Then when Alicia asked how the Harringtons got her phone number, Jonathan explained that he got it from his real estate business partner who happened to be the one that sold her house to her.

  “I hope you didn’t mind me doing that,” Jonathan began. “It’s just that I took a special interest in who was going to live across from us, and when we learned it was you guys, we of course wanted to meet you.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t mind,” Alicia assured them. “What a small world, huh? That it happened to be your business partner that sold me the house?”

  “Yes, indeed,” Barbara agreed with a smile as she looked at her husband.

  When Alicia finished her water and got up to place it in the sink, she noticed the time.

  “Oh, my, I should probably get going. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time.”

  “No, it’s okay. We don’t have any plans tonight. We enjoyed talking with you and getting to know you,” Barbara assured her.

  “It was nice getting to know you too,” Alicia smiled. “However, I should get going. I was going to make nachos for dinner tonight and I try to get the boys to bed at a decent time if they have school the next day.”

  "We totally understand,” Jonathan replied.

  After leaving three pieces behind for the Harrington kids, Alicia grabbed the pie plate that contained two remaining pieces for her boys, and then she, Jonathan and Barbara started walking towards the front door. Before they got to it, though, Barbara remembered that she wanted to give Alicia their phone number.

  “Oh, wait, Alicia. I’m going to give you our number.” She jotted it down and then continued with, “Please do feel free to come over anytime, or if the boys want to come over, they are more than welcome to.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  Alicia smiled, taking the phone number that was written on a small, white piece of paper.

  She went out the front door and around to the back to go and get Robert and Nicholas. She couldn’t stop smiling as she thought about how nice the Harringtons were.

  I think I made a good choice moving us here, she thought.

  When the children were in view, her smile turned into a puzzled laugh when she witnessed Nicholas having so much fun with Deborah, the eight-year-old girl, instead of Alex, the boy supposedly his age.

  Hmm. How interesting!

  ---------------

  Meanwhile, in the back yard Alex took the liberty to show Nicholas and Robert the way around their play area. He showed them inside the house and then all of “his” toys that he liked to play with in the sandbox.

  “This is really cool!” Nicholas stated enthusiastically.

  “We like it,” Alex told him.

  Robert was not impressed. He was, after all, too old for any of it. Not knowing what to do, he thought it best to sit on the freshly mowed grass just outside of the sandbox. He may not play with anything, or anyone for that matter, but he could still talk with them and listen to any of the conversations they might have.

  “Would it be okay if I played with some of these trucks?” Nicholas asked.

  “Sure. I’ll even join you,” replied Alex.

  The two boys had so much fun driving the trucks around through the sand that they focused more on what they were doing and not really on each other and getting to know one another.

  At one point Nicholas did stop and ask, “Hey, how old are you?”

  “I’m ten, Deborah’s eight and Robyn’s six.”

  “I’m ten too!” Nicholas said excitedly. “Why don’t I see you in school then? Don’t you guys go to Fruitvale?”

  “No, we go to Springhill,” Alex replied.

  “Oh, okay. Cool!”

  Nicholas went back to playing with the truck he had.

  In the meantime, not wanting to be too close to the new neighbors, Deborah decided she would hang out with Robyn inside the tree house for a change. Seeing Nicholas brought back all the shameful feelings she had about how she didn’t wave back when they had first moved in. She was unsure if he knew she was the culprit, but that still didn’t stop her from feeling how she did.

  Every now and then she peeked out one of the windows of the tree house to see what Nicholas was up to. She saw that him and Alex were having a lot of fun with their trucks and was therefore happy that he wasn’t thinking about her slip up. She also noticed his brother just sitting on the grass doing nothing.

  I hope he’s okay, she thought.

  The children all played for quite some time in the warm, fall sun. After a while, though, Deborah felt like doing something else. Her favorite thing to do was swinging so she got up and went over to slide down the slide and go and swing after letting Robyn know where she was headed.

  "I'm going to go swing. K?"

  “K,” Robyn responded, not really caring.

  The very same time that Deborah chose a swing to sit on, Nicholas was approaching to swing next to her.

  Oh, no.

  Nicholas asked Deborah if he could swing next to her. “I’m getting a little tired of the trucks and I like to swing.”

  “Sure,” Deborah said with a smile. She was starting to feel nervous and didn’t really know what to say.

  Both Deborah and Nicholas were quiet for a couple of minutes, focusing on how high they could swing. Nicholas was able to get much higher since he was much stronger than Deborah was.

  As they slowed down a bit, Deborah mentioned how cool it was that he could swing so high.

  “Thanks,” he replied. “You didn’t do that bad either.”

  For an instant they both stared at each other, not knowing what to say. Then suddenly they both started to explain what happened the day the Michaels had moved in.

  “Hey, I…,” Deborah and Nicholas both said in unison and then abruptly stopped.

  “Sorry. You go first,” Nicholas encouraged.

  “Oh. I just wanted to say sorry for the other day. I wasn’t trying to spy on you or anything. I was just curious as to who you all were and when you waved at me I got a little scared. I didn’t mean to ignore you, at least I’m pretty sure it was you, and not wave back.”

  Nicholas chuckled a little. “It was me. It’s okay. I was wondering
what that was about. That’s actually what I was just going to ask too when we both started talking at the same time. Great minds think alike, huh?”

  Deborah smiled, feeling relieved that she got her mishap in the open and that Nicholas didn’t seem to mind.

  “You can call me Nick, by the way,” he added.

  “Okay, Nick. If you want, you can call me Debbie.”

  “Sounds good,” he said. Then they both smiled at each other.

  Alex noticed that Nicholas was having a lot of fun with Deborah on the swings and that Robert was just minding his own business.

  I should probably go see if everything’s okay, he thought.

  He got up and went to where Robert was sitting.

  “You okay?” Alex questioned.

  “Yep! Just watching you guys have fun,” Robert explained.

  “You can play if you’d like.”

  “It’s okay. I don’t mind sitting here. Really!”

  Just then, Ms. Michaels came up to the kids. “Are you all having fun?”

  Robert only gave a smile, but Nicholas shouted, “Yes, mom!” from over by the swings where him and Deborah were giggling and trying to see who could beat who.

  “That’s good to hear,” Ms. Michaels smiled, looking over at Nicholas’ direction. She then peered down at Robert and asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, just a little bored,” he spoke quietly, not wanting Alex, who had just left his side to start picking up some of his trucks, to hear.

  “Well, it’s time to get going anyway,” she mentioned.

  Robert immediately got up, relieved that they’d all be going home so he could do his own thing. This experience was definitely not one he imagined it would be when he first found out they would be meeting the Harringtons. He was hoping for someone his age to live here.

  “Nicholas, time to go,” his mom ordered.

  “Do we have to, mom?” Nicholas whined a little.

  “Yes. We’re going to have dinner soon and you know school is tomorrow so I’m not going to let you stay up late.”

  “Okay,” he said sadly. He then turned to Deborah and told her how fun it was to race each other on the swings and mentioned that they should do it again sometime. He hopped off the swing and started walking slowing towards his mom and brother.

  Robyn came down the steps of the tree house to join Alex, Deborah and the Michaels when she realized the Michaels were going to leave.

  “It was nice to meet you all,” Ms. Michaels commented.

  The Harrington kids all smiled in agreement and then waved good bye as the Michaels walked towards the front of their house and back home across the street.

  ---------------

  After cleaning up everything outside, Alex, Deborah and Robyn headed back inside, hoping to get a piece of the apple pie that Ms. Michaels brought over earlier. However, when they had gotten inside they overheard their parents arguing and thought it best not to ask. They all went upstairs and stayed there for a while instead.

  Deborah and Robyn played in their room while Alex stayed in the small family room. It was only big enough for one couch and a TV, which Alex turned on to find something to watch. He settled on a rerun episode of The Brady Bunch.

  Must be nice to have such a happy family, he thought.

  He tried not to think of the fact that their parents fought all the time. So it seemed anyway.

  In their room, the girls played with their Barbie dolls. One of Deborah’s favorite things to do was dress up the dolls in different clothing. They owned a lot of clothing for their Barbies, ranging from tops and bottoms to business suits to fancy dresses to pajamas. More often than not, they never actually played with the dolls, but would just try on different ensembles.

  “What do you think they’re fighting about this time, Debbie?” Robyn questioned as she put a black shirt with purple polka dots and red pants on her doll.

  “Who knows,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

  “They fight a lot, you know?”

  “Seems like it lately, doesn’t it?” Deborah agreed.

  The girls stopped talking about their parents and focused on the Barbie dolls.

  “That’s a great outfit, Robyn,” Deborah spoke sarcastically when she noticed the outfit.

  “I like it,” Robyn admitted, defending the clothes she chose for her Barbie.

  “It doesn’t match, though,” Deborah pointed out.

  “So.”

  Deborah gave a small laugh. “Well, if you like it then that’s all that matters I guess.”

  “Dinner’s about ready,” the kids’ mom yelled up the stairs.

  The girls put their things away, washed their hands in the upstairs bathroom and then came downstairs to sit at the kitchen table where Alex and their dad already were. Mrs. Harrington was just putting the final touches on the dinner and then joined the rest of the family at the table.

  They all dug into the food that Mrs. Harrington had made, complementing her on a job well done.

  While picking at her peas, Robyn dared to ask her parents why they had been arguing again.

  “It’s none of your business. Now eat your peas,” their dad said sternly back at Robyn and then took a sip of water.

  All three of the kids then noticed their mom give their dad a nasty look because of the way he just snapped at Robyn. However, they went back to their meals without saying anything more. The whole family, in fact, sat in relative quietness for the remainder of the meal. It wasn’t until they all started cleaning up their dirty dishes that everyone started to be in a slightly better mood.

  Not forgetting about the pie, Deborah asked, “Can I have a piece of apple pie for dessert, mom?”

  “Sure. Go ahead and get a piece, as well as one for Alex and Robyn,” her mom responded.

  Mrs. Harrington sat down at the table with the kids as they ate their pie while Mr. Harrington turned the TV on in the living room.

  “Did you have fun with our new neighbors?” their mom wondered.

  “They seem nice,” Alex answered. “Robert was kind of quiet and kept to himself though, but Nicholas was a lot of fun.”

  “Yeah, Nicholas was especially fun to play with,” Deborah added. “Him and I raced each other on the swings to see who could get the highest the fastest.”

  “Wow!” Mrs. Harrington said enthusiastically, lifting her eyebrows, to mimic the way Deborah was feeling and to show she was happy that her daughter had a lot of fun.

  The kids talked about the Michaels for a little while.

  Alex finally asked, “Would it be okay to maybe let Nicholas come over this week sometime?”

  “I don’t see why that would be a problem as long as you get your homework done each night and keep your room clean,” his mom considered. “Why don’t you give them a call to see what works for them?”

  “Awesome. Thanks, mom!” Alex said as he excitedly got off his chair and ran into the hallway between the kitchen and living room to pick up the phone and give Nicholas a call.

  ---------------

  “Robert, Nicholas, time for dinner!” Ms. Michaels shouted from the kitchen towards the direction of the basement where the boys were playing.

  Right when they got home from meeting the Harringtons a short while ago, the boys headed downstairs into their finished recreation room where they had a small entertainment area as well as an air hockey table and a huge train set table. When they heard their mom say it was time for dinner, they turned off the air hockey table and lights. They then proceeded up the stairs and into the kitchen.

  “What are we having?” Nicholas asked.

  “I made some stuff for nachos,” was Ms. Michaels' reply. “We’ve got chips, meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, sour cream and a few other toppings.”

  “Mmm, smells so good,” Robert said with a smile. He was glad to be home on his own turf.

  The two boys first and then Ms. Michaels last, went through the buffet style line on top of the counter that Ms. Michaels had set up.
Each person put on what they liked and then went to sit down at the kitchen table that was placed in front of the sliding door to the back yard.

  During dinner they chatted about the Harringtons. Ms. Michaels told the boys a little bit about what she knew of them from her conversation with the parents. She asked the boys if the kids seemed really nice and if they had fun playing in the back yard with them.

  “I really like them, mom,” Nicholas blurted out. “They all seem very nice. I even beat the one girl, Debbie, on the swings.”

  Ms. Michaels laughed. She turned to Robert to ask, “And what did you think of them?”

  “They’re nice,” he responded. He then added, “But they’re younger than me though so I didn’t really have much to do over there. I was bored just watching everyone else play.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Robert,” his mom apologized.

  “It’s okay,” he assured his mom. “I’m okay to just stay here or hang out with one of my new school friends when Nicholas goes over there. I’ll hang out with them once in a while though too I'm sure.”

  “I loved it over there! I’m hoping to get to play with them more often," Nicholas chimed in.

  Just then the phone rang. Ms. Michaels put down the chip that she held in her hand and got up to get it. She reached it just in time.

  “Hello?” she answered. “Hi, Alex.”

  At the sound of Alex’s name, Nicholas’ ears perked up and he twisted in his chair to see his mom better.

  “Sure. Let me get him.” Ms. Michaels beckoned for Nicholas to come to the phone.

  “It’s Alex from across the street,” she said.

  “Hi, Alex!” Nicholas exclaimed, after taking the phone from his mom. Ms. Michaels then headed back to the table to finish her chip.

  “That sounds good. Let me ask my mom, okay?” Nicholas took the phone from his ear and placed his right hand over the receiver so Alex couldn’t hear him on the other end.

  “Mom, Alex wants to know if I can come over this week sometime. Can I please go over there?” he begged.

  “I suppose that’s okay. Just make sure you all have your homework done though before you head over there,” his mom answered.