Kenny was my best friend from as far back as I could remember. He was the same age as me; His birthday was exactly one month before mine. We would always play outside together. When I was real small and only allowed to play in the fenced in back yard, he would be there. The moment my mom turned her back he would stick his head over the fence and ask if I wanted to play. Of course I always wanted to play. I didn’t have any one else to play with. My older sister was eight years older than me and didn’t like to play what I wanted to play. And I had a new baby brother not even a year old, he took a lot of mom’s time and didn’t know how to play yet. So it was just me and Kenny playing long hours of hide-and-seek, make believe and running races. It seemed like we had forever and at the same time it seem like the day I had to start full day school came way to soon.
I had already turned six and was starting first grade. The weekend before school started I didn’t want to do anything but play with Kenny. That Friday it had rained, I was stuck inside with my sister (blasting music in her room) and my little brother (he would be two soon) who followed me around all day. So when I woke up on Saturday and it was bright and sunny I was supper excited to go out and play as soon as I was done with my breakfast. I knew I had to wait to ask to go out until all the breakfast stuff was cleaned up. It was heard for me to keep still for very long at all. I was dancing in the living room to a song I made up when I heard my mom call to my sister.
“Bonnie!”
“Yes mom?” Bonnie answered as she came down the stairs that landed in the kitchen.
“I want you to take Lorna and Tad outside to play.”
“Yeesss!” I said to the room as I spun around.
“Okay mom.” Bonnie came into the living room to get Tad out of the play corral he was in. “come on Lor, let’s go.” She said as she headed to the sliding door that connected the living room to the back yard.
“You guys all stay in the back yard, and keep the gate locked Bonnie.” Mom called from the Kitchen.
“Okay.” Bonnie called back before she closed the door. “Okay Lor,” She repeated to me, “You heard mom stay in the back yard.”
“Okay.”
“If I can’t see you and I call your name you come out the first time or I tell mom and you’ll have to go back in side.”
“Okay.” I repeated. I got the same line from her every day this summer because one time I was playing hide and seek with Kenny and didn’t want to ruin my hiding place and Bonnie had to search the whole back yard before she found me. We have a large back yard, she wasn’t happy about that.
“Go have fun.” She said before turning with Tad to go to the sand box (Tad’s favorite thing) near the edge of the patio.
Before they reached the sand box a few feet away I was halfway across the yard, headed to the back corner close to the swing set/slide combo that’s been there forever. As I reached the closest leg of the swing set a familiar head popped up over the back fence. He always looked the same, sandy-brown hair sticking up in the back, light brown eyes shining with excitement, tinny little freckles covering his nose and one front tooth only half grown in.
“Hay Lor, I was wonderin’ when you were gonna come out.” Kenny called to me.
“I got out as soon as I could.”
“So, ya gonna invite me over or what?”
“Come on and get over here. We need to make up for lost time.” I said as I turned back to the swing set.
“I hate rainy days.” Kenny said from right behind me.
“How do you always move so fast?” I said trying not to jump. I mean I should be used to this by now.
“You’re just slow…Tag you’re it!” Kenny said as he ran away from me.
“Am not!” I yelled back as I chased after him.
The rest of the day Kenny and I played. I even got my mom to let me eat my lunch outside at the kid size picnic table by the swing set. Kenny sat with me and we talked about everything.
“Where’s your lunch Kenny?”
“I went home and ate when you went in to get yours.”
“Oh. So what do you want to play after I eat?”
“How ‘bout pirates? We haven’t played that in forever.” Kenny said bouncing in his seat.
“Okay but after pirates I want to play monster hunt!” I said around a mouthful of sandwich.
When it was time to go in for dinner we had played both pirates and monster hunt along with two other make-believe games we made up this summer. I almost got in big trouble because I really didn’t want to go inside. I was going to miss Kenny too much.
“By Kenny see you Monday.”
“Come see me before you go in the morning.”
“Go? Go where? . . . Oh, school. Okay I’ll try.” I called back to Kenny as I walked back to the house.
The next day was Sunday and we never got to play on Sundays. My family was gone most of the day, starting with church in the morning and then the rest of the day was spent at my grandma’s house with aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was okay playing with my cousins but they weren’t Kenny. It was always after dinner time when we got home on Sundays, so I never get to say hi to Kenny or anything.
To be continued.
