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." 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. "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."

"Cool," Max said excitedly, "I want that for my birthday." He pointed at the commercial for a Power Wheels Adventure Team jeep.

"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. 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 to 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 one 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'? 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."

After handing a blond boy a sprinkled, vanilla ice cream cone, the ice cream man 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.

"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."