“HOW FAR SOUTH?”

Jimmy Thompson died a couple of days ago. He’s Jill’s older brother. Mom said that he died of pneumonia and he was only thirteen and a half, two years older than Jill and me. I’ve been at the Thompson’s pretty much since Jimmy died. Since I’m Jill’s best friend, I’m supposed to play with her and keep her from thinking too much about Jimmy and getting sad. Mon said that’s what best friends are for.

Well, today Jill and I were playing out in the front of her house. It snowed last week and we’ve been building lots of snowmen. Lots of people keep coming to see Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and say how sorry they all are. Last night our teacher, miss Klein came. She had Jimmy as a student two years ago. She was so nice to us and kept calling Jill “Honey”. It seemed sort of funny cause at school she is always getting mad at Jill and me for talking too much and she always sends us to the cloak room until we are ready to be good.

Anyway, today while we were finishing our third snowman, Harold (he’s the Thompson’s gardener) drove up. When he got out of the car, I saw he was all dressed up. I’m used to seeing him in his dirty work clothes. When we were little, he would always play games with Jill, Jimmy, and me. He would kid us, and tell us lots of stories. A lot of times he would help Jimmy start a garden of his own and show him little tricks how to make things grow. He always said Jimmy learned quick and would make a good gardener someday.

Well, I told Jill to hurry up and help me put the head on the snowman as we could go inside and see Harold. But when we got inside, I didn’t see Harold. Then the back doorbell rang and when Mrs. Thompson answered it, it was Harold. I figured he must have forgotten he didn’t have his dirty work clothes on and this time he doesn’t have to worry about getting the new hall rug dirty. Well, Mrs. Thompson asked him to come into the living room and sit down. But Harold said he couldn’t stay and he just wanted to give his sympathy. He started to leave out the back door again, but this time Mr. Thompson stopped him saying it was okay if he went out the front door. Harold looked kind of embarrassed, I guess cause he realized he had forgot to come in the front door in the first place.

Just after he was outside, Mr. Thompson said to his wife, “I sometimes wonder how far south St. Louis really is”. I thought that was sort of funny to ask. He knows that there’s been snow on the ground for two weeks now because he hasn’t been able to play golf, and he used to tell Jill if they lived in the South, he could play golf all year long. I guess he forgot, like Harold did with his clothes. It’s funny, cause when I was little, I used to think grown-ups never forget anything.

Joan Husch Junior