A Little Orange in the Big Apple

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  9: “A Place called New York City”

  Spring was in the air, and all attention was now focused on the coming of Easter. Each day Ali used her pastel-colored crayons to draw pictures of flowers, bunnies, or little yellow chicks for her mother. She would give them to her on Friday night when her mother came to pick her up. She was looking forward to hunting for Easter eggs in their backyard and the fun of being home for a whole week again.

  Ali stood in the driveway of Mrs. Amity’s house, waiting for her mother. “HONK, HONK, HONK,” the familiar car horn sounded. Her mother was there to pick her up. Reynolds was in the back seat reading a comic book and ignoring her when she hopped into the front seat.

  “Hi, Honey------- I have lots of exciting news to tell both you kids about!” said her mother right away. Ali looked back at Reynolds who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head from side indicating he didn’t know what the news would be.

  “Mother, I have some drawings for you,” Ali said as she held up her folder of her Easter artwork.

  “Sweetie, that’s wonderful. I’ll look at all of them as soon as we get home. OK?”

  The drive home to River Street took about 10 minutes and Ali’s mother talked excitedly the whole time.

  “I’ve been talking to your father each evening this week on the phone. He said it’s time that we all live in one place, together.”

  That got Reynolds’ attention. Ali wasn’t sure about where that “one place” would be, but her heart began beating faster. Maybe her nightly prayer about her family living together, all in one place, all week long was coming true!

  “As you both know your father in singing in a show in New York City------ he thinks the show will go on for a long time. He wants us to sell our house and go live with him. Won’t that be wonderful?”

  Both Ali and Reynolds were listening to every word their mother said.

  “New York City!” the kids said excitedly, almost at the same time.

  “Remember, I showed you where it is on the globe? It’s a very big city a long way from the Valley where they have tall buildings to live in and big parks to play in. Best of all, we’d all be together,” replied their mother.

  “Will anyone else be going with us?” asked Ali, thinking especially of her Grandma Nettie and Uncle Dan.

  “Oh, no. They would never leave California,” said Ali’s mother, shaking her head from side to side.

  “So, what do you two think?”

  Ali’s mind wondered as she thought happily about them all being together, wherever that might be. She could only remember a few times when her father had been at home. Once, he had sung a song on the radio and won some things including a television set. Someone came to their house and took a lot of pictures of them all together. One of the pictures was of her family at the breakfast table in their little kitchen. They pretended to eat their cereal and drink their juice and were told to smile all the time. It was like the pictures in the Dick and Jane book. Everybody was together and smiling. It felt kind of funny. Ali was the only one who turned around to look at the man taking the pictures. It seemed odd to have someone take a picture of you while you ate your breakfast. It was the only picture they had of all of them together.

  “Ali, Reynolds wants to go, how about you? What are you thinking about?”

  “I’m thinking it would be ----exciting----but a little sad, too---to leave Grandma Nettie and Uncle Dan --- can I take Smokey the Bear and my cap gun with me?” Ali asked looking up at her mother.

  “Smokey is fine, but we’re leaving all cap guns, bows and arrows and slingshots at home, Ali. You don’t need any guns in New York City. They have lots of policemen, and very few wild Indians.”