The First time I met Mark Sloan he was six years old. Derek had always been introverted, he was kind and caring, but kept to himself and did not often reach out to build friendships with other kids his age so I had been surprized when he asked if his friend could come over to play.
A nice car drove up to the front of our house and stopped, the child got out of the front seat, it didn't even look like he had a carseat, and walked up to the house all by himself. I was surprised because this was something I did with my ten year old, and only to families I had already met. With six year olds you still walk them to the door, meet the parents, get their phone number, and hug and kiss them. He didn't even really look back at them.
"Hi, I'm Derek's mom Carolyn, welcome to our house."
"I'm Mark Sloan." He said.
"Hi Mark! I'm glad you came over, I thought maybe we could play soccer outside and when my Dad comes home from his store He said maybe we could go to Central Park after dinner."
"That sounds fun," Mark replied. "Who are they?"
"Oh those are my sisters, but they are mean and I ignore them, Mark is MY friend guys, you can't play with him like you always tell me about your friends." Derek was proud that he finally had someone to bring home because he was always the one left out while everyone else had friends. The boys went outside and kicked the soccer ball back and forth. I was watching them from the kitchen window while I prepared some cookie dough.
"Mark, Derek, how would you guys like to ball the cookie dough up for me?" I called out to them.
"Ok Mom!" Derek smiled. Mark put the soccer ball back in the toybox and they went into the house.
"What is that?" Mark asked.
"Cookie dough?" What kid has never seen cookie dough, maybe his family makes a different kind. Mark still looked confused.
"Have you had a cookie before?" Derek asked. Right as I was about to reprimand him for asking a dumb question Mark cut me off.
"Like an Oreo?"
"A chocolate chip cookie?" Derek asked.
"Never heard of it."
"Well Mark, what I do is mix some good things together like flour, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs and baking powder and then they turn into this dough, this goes on the cookie sheet in balls and then I bake it in the oven and in ten minutes you guys will have fresh cookies." Carolyn explained and tussled his hair.
"I've never heard of that before, sometimes we get Oreos, but I didn't know cookies were made at home."
"Where did you think they came from?" Derek asked.
"A factory."
"So you go like this," I demonstrated to them how to roll them up. They did a good job, Mark had a very percise hand movement. "You have steady hands Mark, you could be a surgeon."
"That's what my parents are." The boys finished the cookie and I put them in the oven and went back out to play catch, Mark had never seen a baseball glove up close before, Derek told me later. I called them in when the cookies were ready and gave them each two and a glass of milk. Mark said they were the greatest things he had ever tasted so I packed some up for him for when he had to go home. That night he had dinner with us, again he seemed confused about the fresh food and he was having a hard time grasping the concept that all the food didn't come in a plastic tray and wasn't cooked in the microwave. Derek's father took them to the park that night, It was his first time going to a park, and we know they live close to that one. After that day it seemed like Derek really liked Mark, so I planned to encourage Derek to include him in our family outings and holidays so he wouldn't miss his childhood.