y daughter’s best friend wore sunglasses at dinners, through sleepovers, and while brushing her teeth. She never removed them where anyone could see. Then boys at school ripped them off. My daughter came home sobbing. Only after telling me what she saw did she admit why her friend didn’t trust her.
The first thing Sofia did when she moved next door was tell my daughter her chalk house was wrong.
“Your windows are on the roof,” she said.
Anna planted her hands on her hips.
“They’re for birds.”
She moved next door.
I watched from our porch, holding a basket of laundry.
Anna drew a tiny door halfway up the wall.
“For short birds.”
Sofia laughed so hard she dropped her chalk.
Anna drew a tiny door halfway up the wall.
They’d known each other for five minutes.
By lunchtime, they were best friends.
***
Sofia was seven, just like Anna.
She had moved in at the beginning of June and was polite, funny, and bossy about board games.
By lunchtime, they were best friends.
She also wore sunglasses everywhere.
At first, I barely noticed.
It was summer, and the girls spent their days racing scooters and drawing chalk villages across our driveway.
Then she started wearing them indoors.
She wore sunglasses everywhere.
At lunch, during cartoons, and once while helping me roll cookie dough.
“Careful,” I told her. “You’ll get flour on your glasses.”
She wiped them with her sleeve.
“That’s okay, Mrs. Suzana.”
“You’ll get flour on your glasses.”
I smiled.
But I wondered.
My husband, Harry, was away serving in the army.
Anna missed him terribly, although she rarely admitted it.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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