The Girls Across the Street

Yesterday, Bynah (whose name I don't really know how to spell) rang the doorbell. She had made stuffed shells, and set aside a few extra for Mom and I. "This is your dinner tonight", she said. They didn't last that long; they were eaten for lunch before they even had a chance to cool. She also pressed a golden Sacagewea dollar into my hand, telling us it was for "Little Henry, his first gold dollar".

Everyone in the area knows Bynah, she lives in the house across the street, along with Agnes (Aggie), and a third woman whose name we don't know, and can't bring ourselves to ask. We've nodded, waved at, and even exchanged brief pleasantries enough times at this point, that it would too weird to ask. So, I'm forced to use my (well-honed, this happens more often than I'd prefer to admit) tricks for talking or referring to a person whose name I don't know.

There's also some dude (I originally wrote, "a gentleman", but upon reflection, I don't know a thing about him, so I fell back upon my favorite generic male descriptor, "some dude"). We think they are related, but are - again - too afraid to ask for clarification. Really, shouldn't we know this stuff by now?

Most evenings, Bynah sits on her steps and chats with the neighbors. Sue, from down the street, normally sits with her. Sue is friendly enough, but not afraid to share her opinion, as she did when we first told them Bonnie was pregnant. Sue asked if we had a name, and when we told her his name would be Henry:

"Ohhhh! Henry?!?! I hate Henry." We assured her that Henry was the name we had chosen, it being the only name we could agree on.

"What about Jack? Do you like Jack?" No, thank you for the suggestion, but he already has a cousin named Jack.

"What about Ben? Benjamin?" No, we like that name, too, but there's also a cousin named Benjamin.

"Well, maybe when he comes out, he won't look like a Henry..."

Sorry, Sue, he did look like a Henry.