My Best Friend

Warning: Silly childhood stories below. Must read the whole post to appreciate. -Jenn

My best friend is Elena. I have many close friends, but she is my certified best friend -the one I grew up with since she was born 3 months after me. We grew up together. Learned to ride bikes at the same time. Obsessed over Cabbage Patch dolls. We invented games with our smarty-party 8 year old minds like Hot Lava where you go from one end of the house to the other without touching the floor. Elena's mom wasn't too fond of us climbing on the counters and hanging on the door frames, but it kept us girls occupied on rainy days.

I was a really dumb kid. Elena still played with me despite my silly choices. Once I thought it would be cool to send my 6 year old body down the box mail shoot at her dad's work. I got stuck. Her brother tugged on my foot. My shoe came off but I remained stuck in the mail shoot. Her mother, Nina, finally had to pull me out. If I got a dollar for every time she said, "Oh, Jennie Ellis!" in the most exasperated voice ever, I would have college tuition for a year paid for.

Another time, during one of our "Hot Lava" games, I decided to go through the stair railings instead of over them. I got stuck. The railings squeezed my chest tight. I panicked and cried, which made the chest squeeze even tighter. Elena's mom mumbled, "Oh Jennie Ellis" again and I knew I was in for it. She told me to hold my breath so she could work my body out. She suggested using vegetable oil to slide me out easier. No way! I couldn't get veggie oil on my favoirte rainbow shirt, so I painfully slid out. I can still remember the bruise on my breastbone.

Elena lives in California now. She and her family visited us this summer for a few hours. I didn't do anything stupid this time and enjoyed telling stories, showing off kids, and enjoying hers. I wish we still lived on the same street.