After recess, it was time to wash up and go to lunch. Anna and Mary Lou sat beside each other at the long table. When the bell rang, the children returned their trays to the kitchen and then lined up to go back to class.
"It's nap time," Miss Barlow announced. "Let's all get out our rest mats and lay them on the floor quietly and neatly." Anna fetched her blue-and-red rest mat from her cubby, and she and Mary Lou lay down on the floor side by side. Miss Barlow switched off the light and read a book called 'The House That Jack Built.'
Soon after she switched the lights back on and the mats were put away, the class day was over, and the children stood outside to wait for their mothers. Patty and Mary Lou's mother showed up about five minutes apart. Mary Lou's mother was also pushing a stroller, and she was accompanied by a young girl with shoulder-length honey blonde hair who was a bit older than Anna and Mary Lou.
"This is my new friend, Mary Lou," said Anna. "Can I go over and play with her, please?"
"My name is Susan James, and I own Susan's Sweets," Mary Lou's mother told Patty. "Your little girl is welcome to come over and play for awhile."
Patty laughed. "I suppose that will be all right. I'll pick you up before dinner," she told Anna.
"Hooray!" said Mary Lou. "This is my sister Marjorie. She's nine. My little sister's name is Marlene. She's three."
Anna said hello to both girls.
The group soon arrived at Susan's Sweets. The building was painted pink, and there were tables and chairs in front of it. The front of the building was almost completely taken up by a very large window, through which you could look and see all the different flavors of ice cream. Anna felt her mouth begin to water.
The entrance was on the right, and the door made a tinkling sound when Mrs. James pushed it open. The back wall was lined with candy dispensers filled with every kind of candy imaginable, and several booths were in front of them.
"Let's let our guest go first," said Mrs. James. "What kind of ice cream would you like, Anna?"
"Pineapple coconut!" It was her favorite. Marjorie chose strawberry macaroon, and Mary Lou wanted cherry.
"Want to sit outside?" asked Marjorie.
"Sure!" said Mary Lou and Anna. They went outside to the chairs and tables which were in front of the store. Little Marlene toddled after them with her vanilla ice cream.
"She always gets vanilla," Mary Lou remarked.
"'Nilla is my fav-or-rick," said Marlene.
"We know," said Marjorie. All three girls laughed.
"Can you ride a bike without training wheels?" Mary Lou asked Anna.
"My Daddy just took them off two weeks ago," said Anna.
"I've been riding my bike without training wheels for three years," Marjorie bragged.
"So? You're older than us," Mary Lou pointed out.
"I can ride my bike," said Marlene.
"You mean you can ride your trike," Mary Lou corrected her.
Marlene nodded. "Yeah. My trike."
"I can spell my name, too," said Anna. "It's easy. A-n-n-a."
"I can write my name in cursive," said Marjorie. "I learned how last year."
"What's cursive?" asked Anna.
"It's how grown-ups write," said Marjorie.
"My Daddy knows how to write in Latin," said Anna. "It's how he writes per-scriptions."
"Is that like cursive?" asked Mary Lou.
"I guess so."
The girls finished their ice cream and went back inside the store, where Marjorie opened a door in back that led to a living room.
"Back here is where we live," Mary Lou explained.
The living room was cluttered with toys, and against one wall rested a large, overstuffed teal blue sofa. A small tabby cat perched on the sofa, regarding the girls with mild curiosity. To one side of the sofa was a closed door.
"That's my Daddy's office," said Mary Lou. "We have to be quiet so he doesn't get 'sturbed."
The girls entered a short hallway, then a bedroom to the right. The head of a double bed rested against one wall, and a dresser occupied the adjoining wall. Across from the foot of the bed was a closet.
"This is our bedroom," said Mary Lou.
Anna was taken aback. "You and Marjorie sleep in the same bed?"
"Yep, and Marlene sleeps in the trundle bed underneath. See?" Mary Lou pulled the trundle bed out to show her new friend.
"But my Mommy and Daddy only have two kids, and me and Simon have our own bedrooms!"
"Of course. He's a boy," Mary Lou pointed out.
"So if I had a sister, I would have to sleep in the same bed with her?"
"Yep."
Mary Lou fetched two jump ropes from a bottom drawer of the dresser.
"You and me can take turns," she told Anna.
"She can use mine," Marjorie offered. "I want to read some more of my Nancy Drew."
Mary Lou and Anna were still jumping rope in the back yard when Patty arrived to collect her daughter.
"Their family has more kids, but they only have two bedrooms, one for the Mommy and Daddy and one for all three kids," Anna told Patty as they were walking home. "Our family only has two kids, but we have three bedrooms. Marjorie said if I had a sister instead of a brother, I would have to sleep in the same bed with her. Is that so?"
"No," said Patty. "If you had a sister, you might would share a bedroom with her, but you would each have your own bed."
Anna thought about that for a minute. "That's good."