Letters to a Friend

When Jack is six years old, he meets Carmen Young. She is smaller than him and obviously, a girl. The prejudice of little boys tells him that he can't be friends with her because she's a girl and she obviously has cooties. The other boys agree with Jack, but this is no ordinary six-year-old girl. This is Carmen Young and she will not take no for an answer.

So even though she wears dresses to school and her bright red hair in twin braids, she wears sneakers and can run as fast as any of the boys. She's loud and out-spoken and doesn't like talking about dolls and playing House. She likes cars and sports and playing Cops and Robbers. Jack still doesn't want to be friends with Carmen.

The other boys have started letting Carmen play with them, and Jack is not happy with this at all. She's a girl and she's not supposed to play with boys. He pulls her hair one day when he's feeling particularly stubborn and she pushes him off the playground. He breaks his arm and he starts to hate her.

When he comes to school again the next Monday, he's got a cast. It is big and clunky and all Carmen's fault. Jack hates the cast and he hates Carmen. His other friends don't really like letting Jack play with them anymore. Apparently his cast makes him slower and a wimp. To his surprise, Carmen doesn't play with the boys that day.

On Tuesday he's still not allowed to play Cops and Robbers. He sits under the slide and feels very angry. While he's fuming, Carmen comes over. She's not playing with the boys anymore either. He tells her to leave, but instead she sits beside him. He folds his arms awkwardly and she copies him. When she still doesn't leave, Jack gives her the silent treatment.

Carmen pulls a marker out of the pocket of her dress and asks Jack if she can sign his cast. He frowns at her. It's all her fault that he even has it. Carmen doesn't apologize for pushing him, but says she likes his cast. When Jack still doesn't talk to her, she says that he can break her arm if he likes. That way they'd be equal. Jack looks at her curiously.

She grins at him toothily. He lets her sign his cast and her messy printing matches his own. She says she likes the colour of his cast. It's bright green. Jack didn't like it, but with the writing on it, it looks a little bit better. He smiles back at her. Maybe he doesn't hate Carmen Young as much as he thought he did.

After recess, one of the boys notices that Carmen has signed Jack's cast. He asks to sign it and Jack says no. The boy complains and Ms. Kelly, the teacher, comes over. Carmen follows Ms. Kelly over and declares that since she and Jack are best friends, she's the only one allowed to sign his cast.

Ms. Kelly lets the rest of the class sign it too, but Carmen insists on signing it twice. Jack isn't sure when they became best friends, but at lunch hour he and Carmen are both playing with the other boys again, so he doesn't complain.

That spring, Jack plays teeball. Carmen signs up and plays on his team with all the other boys from their school. The other teams make fun of her because she's a girl, but since she's Carmen Young, she's the best player on the team. Jack is starting to like Carmen a lot more and finally calls her his best friend.

They're nine when Carmen breaks her leg. She and Jack, now inseparable, were having a stair-jumping competition and she fell. Jack feels really bad and tries to apologize, but Carmen won't let him. When she comes to school on Monday with crutches and a bright green cast, Jack is a little confused.

Carmen's favourite colour is yellow so why didn't she get a cast that colour? He discovers that she hasn't let anyone sign his cast yet and when he asks, she says that since she broke his arm, this is only fair. He gets to be the first one to sign her cast and it feels a bit like three years ago.