We have lived in our house for over 6 years now. In that 6 years we’ve only become friends with one family who moved away while we were in Russia picking up the boy. For the last 4 years we come and go into our home and only occasionally chat with a neighbor when they are walking by and we are out in the garden (front yard gardening is great for that). When school started in September the boy started riding the bus. On that first day a dad and his daughter showed up at the bus stop. Kindergartners need to have a parent with them at the bus stop so I knew she was in Kindergarten. The dad is chatty and a nice guy so over the last 4 months we’ve talked and he is a really nice guy. The daughter is so very cute and a sweet little girl. I hadn’t ever officially met the wife, but talked to her as she picked her daughter up from the bus. The little girl is in all day Kindergarten so I really only see this family once a day.
The other day I was sitting at my desk when I look out the window to see the dad and daughter walking up our driveway. They knocked on the door and she asked if Oleg could come over and play. Words cannot express how excited I was. We have always wished for a friend for Oleg in the neighborhood. Here she was on the doorstep.
I asked Oleg if he wanted to go play, but Oleg has to work into things and having this sprung on him didn’t sit well. He asked if he could do it the next day and that was fine.
Tuesday was the day and was buzzing with excitement most of the afternoon. The little girl doesn’t get off of the bus until 2:40 so he waited in anticipation. At about 2:45 the little girl, her mom and baby sister walked up the drive. Oleg happily skipped off with his new friend down to her house while I got to work in peace for about an hour. She happened to have swim lessons that day so they would have to cut play time short. When the mom brought him home she said it wasn’t nearly long enough and mentioned that maybe they could play again tomorrow. Oleg thought that was a great idea.
Yesterday I tried to do a few things to distract the boy to keep his mind off of the upcoming play-time just in case the mom said it in passing. We have learned over the years that you cannot say anything in passing around the boy. If a grandparent says, “you should come have a sleep-over” and doesn’t mean right that minute or that upcoming weekend the fallout can be horrible. However, nothing gets past my child and in his mind he would be going to the neighbor girl’s house. At about 2:15 he started sitting in the front window. At about 2:20 he came in my office to say, “mom, she should be here by now.” I said that her bus hadn’t come yet. At 2:35 he watched as her mother walked by pushing the baby stroller and at 2:40 they all walked back by, passing our house. He sat in the window watching and said, “maybe she has to go home and put her backpack away first.” I had spent a good part of the day trying to prepare him just in case she didn’t come over.
He sat in that window watching and waiting. She didn’t come.
As I walked out into the living room I looked at my son and his face just melted. I scooped him up and we sat in the chair while he sobbed his little heart out. I didn’t say anything because I knew that his little heart was broken. He got stood up by a girl for the first time. After he had collected himself it dawned on me that Derek had taken the dog to daycare so he had taken my truck to work. It is possible that they saw my car wasn’t home and thought we weren’t home. The boy informed his father that he was not allowed to take my car today.
I distracted the boy for the rest of the afternoon with games of Operation and Chutes and Ladders and we worked on science projects. Today, if she doesn’t come we’ll go down to invite her over.
