Stranger Neighbors

By Angie Bromeland
Mr. Connelly was known as the disapproving neighbor all the kids feared. But Eleanora wasn’t quite sure why. It wasn’t as if he yelled “Scram!” when they played near his yard. He never slammed the door when a baseball went over his fence. In fact, the worst thing Eleanora could remember is Mr. Connelly never coming to the block party. Her family would be moving two towns away at the end of winter, so she set out to get to know Mr. Connelly.

Eleanora didn’t bother getting her friends’ approval for this task. She knew how they felt about Mr. Connelly. Eleanora took a hot cup of hot chocolate, and marched to Mr. Connelly’s door. She knocked five times. He opened the door and asked, “Yes?”

Suddenly, Eleanora didn’t know what to say. She always clammed up at the worst time!  She stood silently with the hot chocolate in her hand. Mr. Connelly didn’t know what to do, so he started to close the door. Eleanora snapped out of it. She rammed her hand against the closing door, and said, “Please wait.”

Mr. Connelly pulled it open again.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I made myself some hot chocolate. I thought you might want some, too,” she said.

Mr. Connelly looked confused, but welcomed her in. They sat together at the small table by his front window. The first thing Eleanora noticed was the lively music playing throughout the house. A silent movie played on the TV.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Jazz,” he exclaimed. “And what’s this?” he asked.

“Oh! It’s white hot chocolate!” Eleanora smiled.

Mr. Connelly grunted. “I guess I’ve been deprived of white hot chocolate all my life, and I never even knew.” Then he winked.

“And here I’ve been deprived of jazz,” Eleanora said.

They grinned at each other. The visit was just beginning, but it was already proving to be a great idea. Eleanora couldn’t wait to tell her friends.