Author's Note: Unlike most of my stories, this series is not
intended to be a 'stroke story', but more of a realistic tale of
romance between a boy and girl.



Summary: After a very close call with an accident, Kimmy and Max
spend the day at the park.

(bg, nosex)



  After lunch, Kimmy left her apartment. She was wearing a short
sleeve, pink shirt, white overalls, and white and pink sneakers.
Her Mickey Mouse doll was held by its right hand. When she got to
Max's place, she knocked on the door.

  "Who?" came Patricia's slightly muffled voice on the other side
of the door.

  "It's Kimmy. Can I play with Max?"

  The door opened and Patricia stood in front of her. She was
wearing a red and green striped, short sleeve robe with black
pants and black slippers.

  "Max is in his room, the first door to the left."

  "Thank you."

  The hallway walls were white, and to the right of the
apartment's door was the kitchen and living room. To the left was
the open door to the bathroom, Karen's room, and Max's room.
Kimmy walked to the closed, white door and knocked. She could
hear a TV on the other side of the door.

  "Come in," she heard Max say.

  Kimmy opened the door and walked in. Max was sitting on a thin
mattress and wearing a black T-shirt with gray jeans and dirty,
white socks.

  Max's mattress was in the middle of the room and it had images
of baseballs on the white sheets. The walls were light blue and
the floor was made of wood. His black TV, which had a Sega
Genesis on top, was sitting on a small, dark brown shelf in front
of two blinded windows. A Sonic the Hedgehog 2 cartridge was
inside the Genesis. A tall, gray dresser with four red,
handleless drawers was in a corner to the left of the TV.

  "Hey," Max greeted.

  "Hi, Max," Kimmy replied. She walked over to a dome tent that
was behind the mattress. It had sky blue sides and was forest
green on the back and front. A pair of velcro squares sealed the
opening. Inside, the floor was green, and there was a white
pillow. "I like your tent."

  "Thanks. Sometimes I pretend to camp out in it."

  Kimmy sat next to him, sitting Mickey Mouse beside her, and
watched the TV. It was showing an ad for Connect Four. "What are
you watching?"

  "Wild & Crazy Kids."

  "Oh."

  Next, an ad for a Power Wheels Adventure Team jeep appeared.
The jeep was dark blue with a red bumper and windshield rack. It
also had black tires, and on the back of the jeep, there was a
red case that could hold two yellow walkie-talkies.

  "Cool," Max said excitedly, "I want that for my birthday."

  "When is your birthday?" asked Kimmy.

  "April 5th."

  "Mine is May 9th."

  "I'm bigger than you, though."

  "Are not."

  "Am too. Stand up."

  They stood a few inches apart. Kimmy used her right hand to
measure their height. She was about an inch taller than him.

  "See? I told you so," said Kimmy.

  "Only by a little bit," said Max, rolling his eyes. Kimmy
grinned and they sat back down.

  "See? I told him I was bigger," Kimmy said to Mickey.

  The commercials ended, and Wild & Crazy Kids aired again. The
kids watched it together.
      ___________________________________________

  "Do you want to go to the park?" Kimmy asked after the show
ended.

  "I have to ask my mommy," replied Max. He walked out of his
room, through the hall, and to the living room.

  The entire living room was covered by a cerulean blue carpet. A
2 ft tall TV was to the right of the doorway and had a small
cable box with red digits stating '43' on top. Two big,
red-violet armchairs with thick and high arms were spaces a few
feet apart on the left of the black TV. A long, white couch with
thin, black, vertical stripes was facing the two chairs. Patricia
was laying down on the couch, watching TV.

  "Mommy, can Kimmy and me go to the park?" Max asked.

  "Yeah," she said. Max went back into his room to tell Kimmy.

  "Okay, let's go," Kimmy said.

  Max opened his sliding closet door to get his black Sketchers.
He then put his keys into his pocket and they left the house.
They walked down the stairs of the hallway and out the front
door. It was a bright, sunny day.

  "Race ya," announced Max, running away.

  "No fair," laughed Kimmy, running after him while holding
Mickey tightly.

  Cool breeze hit the kids as they ran full speed toward the end
of the block. Max was in front, with Kimmy following close
behind. The overhead stoplight went from green, to yellow, to
red, but Max wasn't paying attention. He was already in the
middle of the street when he heard a car honk its horn twice.
Fearfully, he quickly turned his head to see a white Cadillac
with a brown top driving straight towards him.

  Max felt lightheaded and could only stare with wide open eyes
at the car that was showing no signs of stopping. He was so
scared that he was frozen in the path of the Cadillac. Just then,
he felt a hard tug on his right arm, which snapped him out of his
trance. Kimmy pulled him as hard as she could with both hands and
he stumbled out of the car's path. The car sped past them and
kept going, while they walked back to the sidewalk, holding
hands.

  "Are you okay, Max?" Kimmy asked excitedly.

  "T-thank you, Kimmy," stammered Max. He was a little shaken
from the close call. He was trembling and his eyes were still
wide open. "You s-saved me."

  "You're welcome, Max," replied Kimmy in a more calm tone. "Are
you sure you're okay? Any boo-boos?" She brushed his shoulders
off and rubbed his upper back.

  "Uh-uh." He smiled weakly at her and she smiled back at him.
Her smile helped calm him down.

  "You still want to go to the park?" asked Kimmy.

  "Yeah, but let's just walk the rest of the way," panted Max.
"Uh, my mom says that I should always hold hands with someone
when I cross streets."

  "Okay, let's hold hands."

  When the light turned green, they laced their fingers together
and walked across the street. When they stepped on the sidewalk,
Kimmy pulled her hand away. As they were walking, Max was staring
at Kimmy. Whenever she looked in his direction, he turned his
head to look straight; when she looked straight, he would look at
her. After walking for a half minute, they arrived at the
entrance Genmil Park.

  The park was so big that it stretched across the whole block.
There was a tall, green gate at the entrance with a brown garbage
can on the right side. There were also several relaxing spots in
the park with benches and lots of trees.

  "Look! A butterfly!" observed Kimmy. She pointed at a small
butterfly with white wings. It was circling a big bush.

  "Let's try to catch it!" Max suggested, momentarily forgetting
all about the incident.

  The butterfly flew toward an area with a lot of trees and the
kids ran after it. They were trying to grab it, but the butterfly
was too swift for them. It flew high and low, but stuck close by,
as if playing along with their game. It was either flying too
high for them or hiding within its surroundings.

  It flew into a group of dandelions and landed on one. Kimmy got
on her hands and knees, crawled toward the flowers, and carefully
raised her left hand to reach for the insect. It suddenly flew
away and her hand swiped the dandelions, which flew into her face
and caused her to sneeze. It then flew to a pair of green, wooden
benches that were across from each other and landed on the edge
of the seat. Max reached for it and clapped both hands together,
leaving enough space in between not to crush the butterfly.

  "Did you get it?" asked Kimmy, walking up to him.

  "I think so," he said. His hands were still clutched together.
"Get that cup from under the bench."

  Kimmy turned around and spotted a light blue, plastic cup under
a green bench. She picked it up and walked back to where Max was
standing. "What's this for?"

  "You can hold it while I put the butterfly inside."

  "Good idea."

  "Are you ready?" She held the cup under his hands.

  "Yeah."

  "On three. One... two... three!" He opened his hands and out
came... nothing. "Oops. I guess I didn't have the butterfly,
after all." They laughed out loud.

  "You're so silly," she giggled, putting her hand on his chest
and playfully pushing him.

  "Come on, let's go on the sliding board," he suggested, still
giggling.
      ___________________________________________

  The playground was to the far right of the park. Many kids were
there, particularly climbing or hanging from a large, metal,
cubic-shaped jungle gym that was in the center of the area. A
silver, 6 ft. tall slide was several feet beside the jungle gym.
Four red swings and two tires were chained to a silver pole. A
small, red seesaw laid empty.

  Kimmy climbed the white ladder of the sliding board and sat at
the top. It was a hot day and she could feel the heat of the
metal slide on her bottom. Holding Mickey Mouse in her lap, she
scooted up until she quickly went sliding down. Upon reaching the
bottom, she fell onto the sticks that were all over the ground of
the area. She stood and looked up to see Max at the top.

  Max held onto the thin sides until the backs on his knees were
on the board. He then let go and slid down, landing hard on the
ground.

  Both of them climbed back up several more times. Kimmy looked
at the silver jungle gym, but decided against it, since a lot of
older kids already occupied it. She looked at the swingset. Only
a tire swing was taken, so she went to the swing that was closest
to the support beam. Max sat on the swing next to it.

  "Betcha I could go higher than you," challenged Max, after
bringing himself to a reasonably high rhythm of swinging.

  Not to be outdone, Kimmy walked backwards as far as she could,
then sat back on the red seat, kicking her feet up when she began
to swing upwards. It wasn't long before she was able to keep up
with her friend. Max looked to his right in jealousy as he
watched her go higher than he knew how to.

  "Let's go on the seesaw," suggested Kimmy, jumping off the
swing in midair.

  Max, who was now in the air, leapt out of his seat.
Unfortunately, his balance wasn't as great as Kimmy's, so he fell
on his back almost immediately after landing on his feet. Kimmy
giggled as her friend sat up with a look of embarrassment on his
face.

  The whole seesaw was the same shade of red. The handle bars
were spaced about six inches apart. Kimmy sat on the end that was
nearly on the ground, while Max sat on the opposite side.

  They seesawed for almost an hour, talking about almost
everything from their favorite things, to school. Max mentioned
that his father died when he was three. Kimmy told him that her
father was gone.

  "So what do you want to be when you grow up?" asked Max.

  "I think I wanna be a vet."

  "A lady who likes 'veshibulls' (vegetables)? Eww. That's
nasty."

  Kimmy had to laugh. "No, Max, a doctor that makes sick animals
feel better."

  "Oh."

  "What do you want to be?"

  "Well, I think I want to be a airplane driver. Or a taxi
driver, or a superhero. Maybe I'll be a..."

  Kimmy half-listened in amusement as Max went on to name quite a
few job aspirations.
      ___________________________________________

  "I have to go home now," said Kimmy.

  The kids walked along the concrete path, passing flocks of
pigeons, joggers, and bikers before going through the gate. Along
the way, they spotted an ice cream truck. The gray vehicle had
images of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream cones all
over. A group of children stood in front of the window. Beside
the square window was a yellow menu of ice cream, including
fudgesicles and strawberry shortcakes.

  "Can we get some ice cream first?" asked Max.

  "Yeah."

  The light-skinned, young ice cream man was wearing a white,
buttoned shirt with short sleeves. A white cap was on his round
head, covering his black hair. His wide-set eyes were brown and
he had a short, thin nose. After handing a blond boy a sprinkled,
vanilla ice cream cone, he asked Kimmy, "May I help you?"

  "Can I have a Nutty Buddy?" Kimmy requested.

  The ice cream man disappeared, then reappeared with a cone
wrapped in orange paper. He gave it to Kimmy and looked at Max.

  "I want a Flintstones ice cream," Max stated.

  The man gave him a push pop with an orange label that had
images of Fred Flintstone. The boy and girl then went back to
walking home. Max reminded himself to look both ways when they
had to cross the street.
      ___________________________________________

  "Kimmy, Max is on the telephone," Karen said.

  Kimmy followed her mother into the living room.

  The living room floor was wooden and the walls were white. A
long, dark blue couch was to the left of the maroon door and a
rectangular, glass coffee table was in the center of the room.
Two big windows, covered by white curtains, were behind a dark
blue armchair to the left of the couch.

  The wooden entertainment center in front of the couch held the
black TV, and there were five framed pictures on top. There was a
glass door on the right side of it, where one could store VHS
tapes. The black ceiling fan was off. On a small, wooden table
next to the doorway from the hall to the room, there was an
analog phone. The black phone had gray, square-shaped buttons
with white digits. The receiver, which could be placed to the
left of the buttons, had a black, curly cord attached to it.

  "Hello?"

  "Hi, Kimmy," said Max.

  "Hi."

  "My mommy wants to tell you something."

  "Hello?" Patricia said.

  "Hi, Patricia."

  "Hey, Kimmy. Max just told me that you saved him from a
speeding car."

  "Yes."

  "I'm sure he said 'Thank you', and I thank you, too, very
much." Kimmy tittered sheepishly. "Like I said, you're welcome
here anytime you want. You're a very good friend to Max and he's
lucky to have you."

  "Thank y... I mean, you're welcome."

  "Here's Max again."

  "Bye-bye, Kimmy," said Max.

  "Bye."

  Max lingered on the line until Kimmy hung up. He did not really
want to stop talking to her. He enjoyed hearing the sound of the
girl's voice.

