Left In New York City

By Alex Menell

“Ribbit. Ribbit,” croaked Fred.

Fred is Mitchell’s pet frog. Mitchell is my older brother, and he has a ton of pets. He has two geckos, one snake, five fish, one iguana, and finally Fred, his frog. I on the other hand, being the youngest, only have a pet mouse, Jenny.

I have had Jenny for two years now. She is my only friend asides from my best friend Danielle, that is. Danielle and I became friends in kindergarten. We always went to each other’s houses after school, and every Monday and Friday we made chocolate chip cookies. We spend almost every second together, weekends, days off of school, after school, and even during school.

There was only one time that we didn’t spend together, which was Sundays. Every Sunday, she took the long drive from Long Island, where we lived, to New York City, to see her dad. I went with her once, and we had so much fun. Her dad took us to see The Lion King on Broadway, and then took us to his favorite restaurant, Serendipity. They have actual foot-long hot dogs, and frozen hot chocolate that we all split.

I still remember the look on her face when we left her dad. She was really sad, and the streams of tears that were coming from her eyes left dark marks on her red dress. I had tried my best to comfort her on the way home, but it was no use. She was devastated. It was so hard for her to only see her dad once a week. She was so fragile, and seemed to lose a small part of her every time she left her dad, as if leaving a part of her behind with him.

So I wasn’t surprised when Danielle disappeared all together.