Troublemaker Next Door

Madenosa Girl

Since I was a little girl, I've always lived in Madenosa. Growing up, I enjoyed making friends with the kids in the neighborhood. I made about three in total: Derek, Faith, and Gavin. Gavin and I were 9 and Derek and Faith were 10. Sure, they were older by a year, but they never made us feel unincluded in anything we did.

We rode our bikes on the road together, (no cars would ever pass so it was safe) we would do lemonade or baked goods stands in our neighborhood, (so we could buy tickets to WackySack, the greatest circus) and we would constantly tell stories in the treehouse my dad made for us and just hang out together.

We would mostly tell stories of our lives. Derek would tell us how his dad, who was a lawyer, would carry a suitcase every morning and it would explode due to the many papers he stashed in it. Faith would tell us how her mom would sneak dollars under her pillow every time she lost a tooth. Gavin never really said much about his family. Or about himself for that matter. But we never pressured him.

We were an inseparable group. After 3 years, that all changed. Derek's family moved away due to Derek's allergy to pollen. It got worse especially during the summertime. It was because he grew older that it got worse. Shortly afterwards, about 2 years later, Faith left due to her parents divorcing. She went with her mom to live in the suburbs.

Gavin and I were left. But something changed in him. He started being more open. He would tell me about how he didn't have a mom or dad and how he lived with his aunt, who strangely enough, always raised him with love and cared about him like he was her own.

He would confide in me about how Faith and Derek would talk great things about their families and he could never really relate to them. At some point, they would stop asking him to come over to the treehouse (about a half a month before they left) because he wouldn't contribute anything to the group besides empty company. He was relieved when they left. It made him more comfortable. I was happy that he could finally be himself around me.

Everyday, from that point on, we hung out with each other. We rode our bikes together, made a fort in our treehouse, and watched the stars.

"So, tell me about your family. Like.. how would you have expected them to be?" I asked him as I rotate myself, laying on my back.

He sighs and watches the sky sitting up as he smiles. "I always dreamed that they were like me."

I sit up as he grabs some white paper and some crayons. He draws them as he continues imagining them. "They would have dark blue hair like me, green eyes like me, and they would be tall like me."

I laugh. "They can't be tall like you."

"Why not?"

"Because silly, you're just a kid and my mom says that parents are the ones that are tall."

I take the crayon and draw long legs on both of his ideal parents' bodies. He puts the picture aside. "I will take that home later."

"Put it on your wall."

"Thanks Mia."

He looks at the blank pages on the treehouse floor and smiles. "Wanna draw some pictures for the treehouse walls?"

"Sure!"

We begin drawing some pictures to put on our treehouse walls.

One drawing in particular that I enjoyed drawing was that of a blue monarch butterfly. Something about them was fascinating.

"What is that?" He says as he watches me grab the blue crayon.

"A blue monarch butterfly."

He raises an eyebrow. "They exist?"