ACROSS THE STREET AND TWO DOORS DOWN by Spanky de Bautumn

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The summer before his senior year, a new family moved into the neighborhood. There were three kids, a girl, the same age as Jamie, a son that was a year younger, and a younger daughter that turned eleven the week after they moved in. It was a perfect opportunity for the family to get to know the neighbors and vise versa.

Jamie had one sibling, a sister, Patty, she was ten. He was given the responsibility of taking her to the new neighbor’s birthday party. Most big brothers would rather eat bogers than take their little sister to a preteen girls birthday party. But like I said, Jamie was different.

The family had moved to the city the year before. The father was in management and was transferred from the main office to help start a branch office here. The mother was a nice looking lady, you could see where her daughter got her sense of style, who was trying to get her own beauty salon going. They weren’t wealthy but they were well off and had a lot of drive, which they passed on to their children. They had been renting until they fell in love with the house across the street and two doors down from Jamie’s.

The oldest girl was Carrie, she was in the same grade as Jamie and about his size, maybe an inch shorter. She was very stylish and kind of had an air about her that rubbed some people the wrong way. The boy, Matthew, was five foot ten and weighed a solid 165. He was a good gymnast and an excellent diver. He was a good looking kid and a sharp dresser and always seemed to be smiling like there was a joke and he was the only one who knew the punch line. They called the birthday girl, “Itsy”, short for ‘Itsy Bitsy’, as she was short like her mom and sister and on this day was a whirling dervish, in nonstop motion.

Jamie was his usual charming self and bonded with the two older siblings right away. While the younger kids played outside, Jamie entertained Carrie, Matt, and the other parents with his stories of neighborhood mishaps. As a present, Jamie and Patty gave Itsy two tickets to the local theme park. Patty said my brother is going to take us and one of your other friends tomorrow. Itsy hadn’t made any other friends yet and asked Carrie to go. Carrie wasn’t interested, it was kids stuff, but Matt was glad to accept.