Jimmy and Steve are Friends

Jimmy lived on Avocado Street. It was a sunny street, with a wide road and little houses lined up on either side.

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The houses were separated by fences because the people in the houses liked things to be peaceful, and thought it was more peaceful if you couldn't see anything your neighbour did.

But the fences stopped them from seeing nice things too. Jimmy knew that over the fence, in the early spring, the wattle trees made the road yellow, as though sunshine had spilt all over the cars and asphalt.

While behind the fence, in the late spring, the jacaranda trees made a purple carpet that kids liked to ride their bikes through.

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Beside the fence, in the early summer, a family moved in next door to Jimmy.

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Jimmy watched the family bringing their bags, with their big red truck. There was a boy there about Jimmy's age.

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"Hello!" the boy shouted across the boxes. Jimmy shouted "Hello!" back. He thought the boy had a nice grin. And even from a distance, Jimmy could tell that the boy's eyes sparkled in the nicest blue.

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Jimmy called, "What's your name?" "Steve!" said the other boy. "What's yours?" And just like that, Jimmy and Steve were friends.

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Jimmy and Steve loved talking to each other. They talked over the fence at first. Each stood on a little piece of wood and talked the whole day until it was evening.

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When it was night-time, Jimmy looked out his bedroom window and saw Steve in his own room, which was just lined up with his. They waved again, and Jimmy took out a flashlight. They found they could send messages to each other in morse code.

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Or by paper plane, if the windows were open and the wind not too windy.

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Or by tin cans and string, if they made a special kind of telephone.

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After a while, they got tired of talking over the fence. So Jimmy climbed a tree, and spoke to Steve from high in the branches. But Steve's neck got a crink in it from looking up so much, and he didn't have a tree on his side.

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They wanted to walk over to each other's house, but their parents were worried about them walking on the street. "We can't see you if you go outside," they said.

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But Jimmy and Steve knew there must be a better way. They discussed it all the next week, wobbling as they stood up on their bikes, talking over the fence. There was a loose bit of paling behind the blueberry bushes. "Could we please make a gate in the fence?" they asked.

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Jimmy's parents were sure. "It's nice having a fence," they said. "What if you and Jimmy aren't friends one day? You would have to close it up again, and that would seem unfriendly."

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But Jimmy and Steve knew they would always be friends. And they were so convincing that their parents finally said yes.

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Now there is a gate between Jimmy and Steve's house. And they go so often from one's house to the other, that they prop it open with a little rock, and leave it open all the time.

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And when Jimmy and Steve's parents saw how nice it was to say hello to their neighbours in the the garden without looking over a fence, eventually they decided to take down their fence altogether.

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And the other houses in the neighbourhood saw how Jimmy and Steve's families were having so much fun together that even they eventually took their fences down too!

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And you know what the best thing is? Jimmy and Steve are still friends to this very day.

The End.

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