I had to write another memoir for English class, this time with author notes. Enjoy.
My chubby five-year-old legs ran outside into the warm outside air. I could hear my neighbors. “Can I come?” This frequently asked question was practically my catch phrase. As a hyper little kid with no cable TV (aka nothing fun to watch during the day), busy parents, and no kids on my street my age, I was constantly tagging along with the “older kids.” Out of the six of us, I was the youngest- at least four years younger than all of them: Connor, Sharlys, Tony, Michael, and Brian.
They all had their unique personalities. Tony lived down the street- he was the jock, the one who we’d go to play street hockey or soccer. Michael didn’t actually live on our street, but the street behind ours, which was really busy. He would just cut through Brian’s backyard and come to hang with us. Brian was also a sports enthusiast. He had a basketball hoop and a playground in his backyard, so his house was a popular hang-out spot. Tony, Michael, and Brian would have been all nine when I was five. Finally, Connor and Sharlys were brother and sister, always fighting. They lived next door to me. When I was five, Connor would have been twelve and Sharlys would have been ten. They were both talented musicians, members of their family’s band. Being the oldest, Connor was pretty much the leader of our little group. As the only girls, Sharlys and I always connected the most, but she always loved messing with me. She still does. They all teased me, but I was cool with it. I was just happy that I got to come with them and listen to their grown-up conversations.
My strongest memory of hanging with all of them was a time we went to Michael’s house. Being right behind Brian’s house and having an awesome recreational garage, we went there a lot. Today, we were going to clean up the fish pond in Michael’s backyard and make a sign for it. Michael’s dad was making him clean this fish pond (currently, we weren’t sure if we couldn’t see the fish because the pond was too dirty or because they had all died), so we were going to make the most of it. It was going to be a great little pond when we were done. Everyone was talking about how much of a scorcher it was going to be that day. We were all getting sodas from the refrigerator in the garage. Well, more like they were getting sodas from the refrigerator in the garage. Naturally, I wanted one too, but…
“No,” Sharlys said, completely serious except for the mischievous glint in her eye. “This soda is for people ages ten and up only.”
“But they aren’t ten yet!” I whined, gesturing at Tony, Michael, and Brian.
“Yes we are,” Michael claimed, popping the top off his soda bottle with a fizz, “We all turned ten just a little while ago.”
My chubby face examined his serious one. I was pretty sure their claims weren’t true, but I hadn’t mastered the art of lie detection yet. Although I was learning.
“You aren’t ten. I’m five, and you’re four years older than me. Five plus four is nine,” I stated, hoping they would see the logic in my reasoning.
“Oh, good at math, are you?” laughed Tony. But they couldn’t come up with a better response.
They were about to give me a soda when Connor came to their rescue and said, “Sharlys meant to say that you had to be eight to drink it. Tony and Brian and Michael can, but you can’t.” He held his arms out and shrugged, “Sorry,” but I didn’t buy it. He was grinning the whole time. This was surely a lie…
“Yeah, we can drink it and you can’t! Ha!” Brian jeered. I stuck out my tongue at him. I wasn’t friends with Brian. He had once called me an ugly duckling. I was still mad.
I began to go through what I can only call the five stages of grief.
“N-no!” I stuttered. “There are no drinks that you can’t drink before eight! It’s eighteen, right?” Denial.
“Nope, sorry, munchkin.” Sharlys said, ruffling my hair and using the pet name I hated, “It can be eight OR eighteen.”
“Please! I’ll do all the work. I’ll clean up the pool for you guys.” Bargaining.
“No, you’re too small.” said Sharlys. That really made me bristle. I was a big girl.
“Well, we could let her work for us…” contemplated Brian.
“No. She’s too small to do real work, and she can’t have a soda.” Sharlys said, plucking the question I was about to ask right out of my head.
“I don’t believe you. You said it was ten- then it became eight years old. The age can’t just change like that!” I pouted. They were being so mean to me. I wanted to cry. Sadness.
“Sure it can,” grinned Tony. Liar.
“Besides, it’s my house,” said Michael, who had already gotten bored and was playing on the pinball machine in the garage.
“NO, it can’t!!” I stomped my foot. Anger. I really hated being tricked. People didn’t expect me to be smarter than them because I was younger than them, but I was. I was smart. I was already reading Blue-level books in school, which was higher than White-level, Yellow-level, and Red-level books.
“Okay, Gracie, we’ll make an exception just for you. You can have a few sodas, just because you figured us out.” Connor said.
“She did?” Brian and Tony asked at the same time (and proceeded to jinx each other).
“Yes, of course she did,” Connor laughed, “Sharlys was right the first time, it is ages ten and up. We’re letting Tony, Brian, and Michael have sodas, though, so I guess we can let you have a few, too.”
“It’s my house, I can have soda whenever I want,” said Michael.
“Yep, she’s a clever little munchkin,” Sharlys completely ignored Michael and got me a soda from the fridge, popping the top and handing it to me. I watched the cold steam rising from the top and listened to the bubbles popping for a moment before taking a cold, refreshing sip. Something still didn’t quite ring true about the whole “Ages ten and up” deal, but I had finally reached acceptance. And I was sure my lie-detecting skills had gotten much better. And I realized that no matter how many times these guys tried to trick me, I would figure them out in the end. This experience hadn’t been all bad. I felt smarter, and more grown up, and like I had the upper hand on my older friends. Finally, remembering we hadn’t just come for soda, we got the pool cleaners and heavy-duty rubber gloves, and had that late summer afternoon well spent.
My neighbors really were my life from ages four through six. After first grade, they started to turn more and more into teenagers, but we still hung out. We would play hide-and-seek tag and capture the flag and football. I learned everything a little girl would need to know: the best hiding places on the block, how to tell when it’s about to rain, how to pretend you understand something when you really don’t. How to cheat in hide and seek by saying “One, two, skip a few, ninety-nine, one hundred.” They were such a big part of my childhood; it was hard not to think of them when I was told to write a memoir. This particular memory is just the one that stands out the most in my brain.
One of the biggest things that brought this memory back was Easter Sunday. Connor was back from college, and we were all looking for something to do, so we got together, for the first time in a long while. We played football in Brian’s backyard and then went down to Michael’s house and got sodas from the refrigerator in the garage. They were just as good as I always remembered. Then we went to Michael’s pond. He had really let it go. The sign we had put up years ago was faded and weather-worn. The pond itself was just as murky, so we cleaned it out a bit with sticks. I found a plastic bag. By the time we were done, we could actually see some fish. I think they could survive anything. My neighbors and I don’t see each other very often anymore. I think when they see me, they are surprised to see how much I’ve grown, how different I am from my five-year-old self, and how very much the same, too. But this memory…. It just gives me a blast from the past and let’s me remember what it was like, back when we were young….
By the way, this isn't me. I was
a) never as fashionable to wear a blouse that matched the leaves
b) had a weird, bowl-like haircut
c) would never be standing still long enough for you to get a picture this good
d) I was way cuter than this
