From Clark Street to Jenkins Circle
an excerpt

As the car pulled away Robbie crawled over the bags of clothes in the seat of the station wagon all the way to the back window. Annie was standing in her old front yard of the house they had spent years playing in. She stood there, head down,hands in the pockets of her demin overalls, blue flowered shirt, shoulder length blonde hair unbrushed, bobby socks and tennis shoes. Suddenly Annie lifted her head and watched as the car continued down the road, she began to run after it waving frantically. Robbie placed her hand on the window and circled it to clear her view as a single tear rolled down her cheek. Annie & Robbie had only been friends for a few short years, but still the best of friends, they shared a bond that they would with no other person theya would meet. They had secrets, secrets they told noone for 5 years they had their own little "Annie & Robbie" world and in that world everything was magicial. They both cried harder as they watched eachother get futher and further away, a panic grew in their hearts. What would they do without eachother? Soon the station wagon took a corner and with that Annie was gone. Robbie turned around and sat down in her seat, she was sobbing now. She felt her mother's arm around her pulling her close and kissing the top of her head. "It's alright angel" she said "you can write to Annie" "But I don't know how to write, I am only 6 ! " "I will write for you" her mother said. And that she did for several years till shewas able to write a letter herself, but she always signed the letters herself with Love, Robbie xoxoxo.Florida was so far away and she had already decided to hate it! The only thing that made her feel any better was her mother's comforting words and the company of her sister Liz & Michele. They played car games like punch bug, and I spy and hangman, things like that. They read to her also, she loved stories, she never just listend,she would close her eyes and put herself in the story. During the long ride every once in awhile she would think of Annie and get a sad feeling in the pit of her stomach, thinking back now , it was her chest not her tummy and maybe her heart was breaking just a little. Her mother Doris and her and Grandma Bessie, they called her Mama were all in the station wagon too. Her father Robert whom se was named after drove in front of them in the U-Haul. They made stops along the way and stayed in various hotels. Everynight before she got tucked in Doris would tell her a story or read a book and sing, during this trip it was all "Robbie & Annie " stories. The first night it was the story of how they met. This is how she told the story...."One afternoon I was in the kitchen washing dishes, you my angel were in your highchair with some cereal, the doorbell rang nad when I answered there was a little blonde girl standing there in brightly colored shorts and tee shirt and tennis shoes, being shy her head was down and she was circling the dirt with her shoe. whe I said "Hello" she looked up with her big blue eyes and said "Can your little girl come out & play?" I laughed so hard, she was visibily shaken because I laughed and turned to leave.."no no" I said, "it's ok" It's just that my little girl is barely a year old" "you ask your Mommy and have her come tell me it is ok nad you can come play inside". "oh OK!" Annie said and ran as fast as she could back home. "You two must have played every day from sun up to sundown for the next 5 years."