Best Friends

If you had asked me who my best friend was at the age of 4, I would have undoubtedly replied, "Mrs. Cowger."

She was my next door neighbor when we lived in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Our house sat on busy Colesville Rd., not in a neighborhood that might have been filled with friends like the ones I had left when we moved from Baltimore.

My older brothers had each other. My sister was just a baby, so I spent time alone and with Mrs. Cowger.

I don't remember much about what we did, only that her son taught me how to color without shading outside of the lines.

I haven't thought about her in years, until I watched as my 2-year-old neighbor walked out her front door, took a left and knocked on her neighbor, Heidi's, door.

I asked Heidi about it one night over burgers at a local tavern. 

"Oh, yeah," she laughed, "she comes over all the time. She knows where her toys are and makes herself right at home."

Eleanor has all of us in our 8-townhouse section enamored with her. She greets us all whenever she's outside. Even so, it seems like Heidi is her very best friend for now.

Even though she has a sibling arriving soon, I don't think she'll ever forget Heidi. Just like I haven't forgotten Mrs. Cowger.