TWENTY-TWO

IN THE SUMMER OF 1984, THE HOUSE NEXT TO HIS FAMILY’S HAD FINALLY SOLD, AND THE NEW FAMILY WAS MOVING IN. He stood in the library window watching the movers unload the furniture. The house next door was a small bungalow. The driveways of the two homes were next to each other, with a narrow hedge separating them. He couldn’t wait to see who was moving next door. He had hoped there would be kids and that they wouldn’t be too young. He was ten, and most of the neighborhood kids were little and couldn’t even ride a bike.

A blue Oldsmobile slowly pulled into the driveway. Holding his breath, he waited to see who would open the door. Please, God, don’t let it be another old couple, he thought.

A man and a woman got out of the front seat. They looked to be about as old as his parents. That’s good, he thought. It’s a start. He could see movement in the back seat. He didn’t care if they had a boy or a girl, just as long as the kid was his age and not in diapers!

Finally the rear driver’s-side door opened. “Come on, get out!” he shouted softly to no one. He pressed his face against the window pane and saw red sneakers with white ankle socks. Humph, must be a girl, he thought. He was disappointed, but maybe she would be OK.

“Rachel!” called her father. “Get out of the car!”

“OK, I am!” she shouted back. “Just hang on.”

Finally he saw her crawl out of the car. Not too bad, he thought. She looked to be his age. She had light-brown hair, pulled up into a ponytail. As she got out of the car, she glanced at the monstrous house sitting next to her small house and saw him peering down at her. He quickly sank back from the window, but he knew it was too late. She had seen him.

He waited a few minutes, gathered up his courage, and made his way out of his house and to her driveway. As he walked around the hedgerow that separated their two yards, onto her driveway, he practiced how he would introduce himself. But by the time he rounded the hedge, Rachel and her father were no longer next to the car. Gathering his courage he walked up the sidewalk toward the front door. He raised his fist to knock on the door just as it opened and Rachel ran out, almost running him over.

“Uh, hello,” she said.

“Yeah, hi, I live there, next door,” he said, pointing to his house.

“Yeah, I know, I saw you. I’m Rachel. Your house is huge and kinda creepy. But I like it.”

“It’s just big; nothing creepy about it. I can show you around if my parents say it’s OK,” he said.

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking and laughing as he helped her unpack her room. They finished just as it was getting dark. Afterward they sat on the front porch steps; her mom brought sandwiches and sweet tea for them. He couldn’t remember a happier time.

That summer went by fast. It was the first summer he remembered that he hadn’t been lonely. Finally he had someone to play with and share his secrets with. Not all of his secrets, of course. And he was worried that when school started Rachel would make new friends and forget about him, becoming someone who whispered behind his back. But that never happened. Instead, the two became almost inseparable. They walked to and from school together, did their homework together, and sometimes ate dinner and watched evening television together. When winter finally came, they played in the snow.

“Come on, lie down in the snow!” Rachel said, giggling, as she tossed herself backward into the newly fallen snow. “Do you know what a snow angel is?”

He shook his head no.

“Just watch me make one and then you can make one. The trick is getting out of the snow without ruining the angel.”

Rachel dropped down onto the snow, raised and lowered her arms, and moved her legs across the snow to make the wings and the gown of the angel. When she was satisfied with her art, she carefully got up and climbed out of the angel shape. He was still admiring her work when she said, “Your turn,” and gently pushed him toward the snow-covered yard.

Laughing, he fell on the snow-covered grass. “OK, OK. I’m gonna do it, just lookin’ for the right spot.”

He hurriedly made his snow angel and jumped out instead of carefully getting up. The bottom of the angel looked a little ragged. Although it was dark, it was also bright enough outside to see the snow falling. The air was crisp and clean. It wasn’t too cold, and there was no wind. The night was quiet, and all he remembered years later was hearing the snow falling onto the ground.

“Well, that’s an awfully nice snow angel for being your first,” Rachel said. She laughed and threw her arms around his shoulders. Together they stood there admiring their snow angels as the snow continued to fall. He would always remember that night as the happiest night of his childhood.