Childhood Memories

My best friend, Maureen, lives down the block and across the busy street. So, I can't run over there to visit any time I want. She and I are the only kids in the neighborhood who go to a Catholic school, so we walk home together. Sometimes, I just keep walking and talking with her when we are passing my home and we carefully cross Broadway to get to her home. My mom doesn't know my friends like Maureen and doesn't know that I love the smell of sugar cookies. I don't care if I have to climb all those stairs to get to her apartment. Things are quiet here in the dark halls. And, her kitchen floor is coming loose in places, like the wind came through and made bubbles that don't crunch down all the way when you walk on them. We can hear her bird walking around in his cage. She and her brother, Mike are so poor that they had to save up their money from a card sale to go to Woolworths to buy him. I think it's a him.