57 Hilton Street

Alex had known Jack for as long as he could - and wanted to - remember. Ever since he showed up as the weird English kid with the crazy accent. He thought he was about seven or eight years old, but - as clichéd as it is - to Alex, age is but a number. He was in the park on his third day in America when they met. Alex was just swinging back and forth on one of the little red swings when Jack came over to him, pulling a crying little girl behind him. Alex guessed she was his sister.

“Hey, kid!” Jack had shouted, waving at him “Have you got a band-aid? My sister hurt herself and I don’t know what else to do.”

“Uhm… What’s a band-aid?” Alex asked nervously.

The other kid frowned at him.

“You know, they’re, like, fabric with a bit of foam thing in the middle… I don’t know how to describe them…” The other boy explained.

“A plaster?” Alex asked, cocking his head to one side.

“Yea, that!” The other boy bounced with exuberance when Alex finally understood.

“Uh, I don’t, but I think my mum might. I’ll go check with her.” Alex replied, biting his lip and getting up. He walked towards his mother, who was sitting on the opposite side of the play park with his father and his older brother.

“Hey mum, do you have a plaster? Some kid’s little sister hurt herself and he doesn’t have one. Mrs Gaskarth rummaged around in her handbag and pulled out a blue strip covered in white polka dots and handed it to her youngest son.

“There you are dear. Tell her she should be more careful, too.”

Alex toddled back over to the kid and his sister and gave him the plaster.

“Thanks kid.” The other boy said, smiling. He ripped off the plastic covering the back of the band-aid and stuck it over a cut on his sister’s knee. She got up and hugged Alex’s legs in thanks.

“May, come on, get off him.” The boy sighed, peeling the girl - May, Alex presumed - away from Alex’s legs.

“Go on, go play or something. But be careful!” The boy said, shooing the girl away into the play park.

“So I haven’t seen you before, are you new?” He asked, turning to Alex. Alex nodded shyly, looking down at the floor.

“Where’d you come from?”

“England.” Alex answered bluntly.

“Oh, cool!” The kid was suddenly enthusiastic “I bet it’s awesome over there. I always wanted to go there.”

“It’s not that great.” Alex replied, still staring at the floor.

“And this place is?” The boy asked. Alex frowned.

“… No, but-”

“Exactly.”

“What are you on about?” Alex asked curiously, now mildly confused.

“Never mind.”

Alex looked up, over the kid’s head and at his parents. His mom was beckoning him over.

“I gotta go.” Alex explained, “It was nice talking to you…” He trailed off, realizing he still didn’t know the boy’s name.

“Jack. And you are…”

“Alex.” The English boy grinned.

“I’ll see you at school, Alex?” Jack asked, smiling.

“You bet, Jack. You bet.”

Alex walked over to his parents, and his mom smiled at him.

“Making friends? Who are they, Lexie?”

“Jack and May.” Alex beamed.

Baltimore just got a whole lot better.