She was new in the neighborhood and it was the beginning of summer. It was different in the desert. The kids didn’t come out to play when it was 121 degrees in the shade. Back at her grandma’s house they got a nice cool ocean breeze blowing in that always kept the temperatures manageable.
She bravely took her bike out on a ride through the new neighborhood looking for companions. Back at the court bungalows where she had grown up so far, there were lots of kids out riding bikes, playing in the sprinklers, or sitting in the shade playing jacks. She didn’t think she was going to like this new place. It was just so damn hot!
Now that she was nine and going through extreme pubescence, she had gotten a little pudgy and her dad had decided that she needed to be on a diet. She was a stout girl who was also smart and mostly good except when she let her mouth go. But now she was always hungry which led to her mouth going off a little more than usual.
She met one girl who waved at her through her living room window. She lived in a house that looked like a stone castle and she was an only child of older parents, so she didn’t come out much, but at least she would know one girl in her class when school started in the fall. It was going to be a long hot lonely summer.
Ellen, the girl next door, was three years older and also an only child. She wasn’t interested in friendship with a younger girl, but she tolerated Kristie hanging around because she could amuse herself by acting older and smarter which she was anyway.
Ellen’s dad had tuberculosis and had to stay locked in the back bedroom out of sight when Kristie came over. This didn’t bother Kristie until many years later when she tested positive on the TB skin test. For the rest of her life she would have to have X-rays to prove she wasn’t sick.
One day she happened to be over at Ellen’s house right before lunch. Ellen asked her, “Do you want a sandwich?” She smiled when she said it as she had planned to play a little trick on her young friend.
Kristie was always hungry, so she didn’t hesitate to say, “Yes!”
She watched with anticipation as Ellen assembled all the ingredients she needed to make this sandwich extravaganza. She assembled six slices of white bread, spread with mayonnaise, hot mustard,and a squirt of ketchup, some lettuce, sliced tomato, red onion, and three slices of Swiss cheese. Kristie thought that this was going to be it, but the final ingredient was a big slab of liverwurst!
She had never had liverwurst before and she didn’t really care much for the name of it, but Hey, she was hungry. She’d try anything!
Ellen opened a bag of potato chips and three bottles of Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer. She arranged three plates with each sandwich cut diagonally, placed a handful of chip between the halves, and poured the root beer over ice in three glasses. Then she told Kristie to wait while she delivered lunch to her dad in the back bedroom.
They sat at the kitchen table politely with white serviette napkins in their laps, Kristie looking up to this older girl who seemed so poised and capable. She devoured that sandwich – every bite! She relished the chips and drank the cold root beer. She loved liverwurst! This had been the best day she had that summer!
She didn’t hang out with Ellen much as the years passed, but she would always remember the kindness of the liverwurst sandwich and the soft friendship Ellen offered to a young girl finding her way.
(First published 5/10/12)
