Found Book One

New Friends

"Get up you two! We got a big day!" Carol says knocking on the table, I groan and sit up. 

"Y'all can eat, everyone else went out to explore," she says walking out the front door clad in a blue cardigan and a floral print shirt. 

I stand up and walk into the kitchen with a smile on my face.

"Morning," Rosita says as I walk into the room, she pushes a coffee cup across the table, I wrap my hands around it and bring the warm liquid to my lips. 

"How'd you sleep?" I ask her, she smirks lightly and places her mug on the counter.

"I slept pretty well. That bed is amazing," she says. I nod with a smirk, "Sure," I say taking another sip of my coffee, I turn as footsteps approach.

Carl walks in with Rick behind him, "Judith has a stroller now, so you two can take her out to meet the folks in the town," Rick says passing the baby to Carl. "I'll be right behind you," he says.

We walk out the door and down the porch steps, I strap Judith into the stroller and place a pacifier in her mouth. 

Carl smiles and pushes the carriage down the street. We take a right turn, "Excuse me?" an old woman says waving us over to her porch, Carl looks at me and I nod.

I walk over, he follows behind me with Judith, "Oh she is just precious," the woman says poking the baby in the stroller. 

I smile and Carl picks her up, "Her name's Judith," he says letting the old couple hold her. 

"I missed having babies around. See we had six kids and 13 grandkids, even a great grandson," she says rocking the small girl in her arms.

"Well you can watch her anytime you want," Carl says stroking his sister's strawberry blonde hair, "Really?" the woman asks.

The boy nods, "Yeah, of course," he replies, "Carl!" Rick's voice interrupts the conversation.

I turn to see him running down the street with Jessie trailing not too far behind. Rick and her stop and talk for a moment. 

He gives us a nod, "We have to go," Carl says to the old couple. "Oh, I hope you come back soon," the old woman says with a smile. 

"We will ma'am," I say before Carl takes his sister into his arms. 

We walk over to Rick and Jessie, "You two are goin' over to meet Jessie's boy," Carl's father says. 

Carl smiles, "I can take you over right now, Ron my son and Mikey another boy that lives down the street really want to meet you two," Jessie says. 

The both of us nod, Rick takes Judith from Carl, "You two go, just be back for dinner," he says with a smile. Jessie leads us to a home, she takes us through the garage. 

"Shoot, I don't have my keys," she mutters. She knocks on the door to get her son's attention. I move my own attention to the sculpture near the work stand. 

I jingle one of the many spoons hanging from the larger metal base, "That's me and Sam's owl," Jessie says with a smile as she knocks on the door again. 

I can hear someone inside. A boy around our age opens the door. He has dirty blonde hair and is a little shorter than Carl. "This is Carl and Elaine," Jessie introduces. 

"I have pantry duty so I'll be back late," she says to her son, Ron nods, "Okay, see ya," he says as she leaves, "I'm Ron," he says as he opens the door for us to come inside.

"Enid and Mikey are upstairs," he says, I move into the house with Carl beside me. "How old are you?" Ron asks as he leads us into the living room, "He's seventeen and I'm sixteen," I say looking over to the taller boy.