Getting to the other side

GETTING TO THE OTHER SIDE - By Terri Andersen
When I was five years old, my family lived on a busy city street with trolley tracks running down the middle of it. Of course, I was not allowed to cross any street by myself at that age, but it really didn't matter to me until one day, as I was sitting on the front step of the building we lived in, I heard someone calling, "Little girl, little girl, what’s your name?” As I looked around to see where the sound was coming from, I saw another little girl directly across the street. I got up and went as close to the curb as I dared and immediately she yelled across the noisy street, “My name is Annie. I'm not allowed to cross this street. Can you come over here?” "I'm not allowed to cross streets yet, either,” I hollered back, but from that day on, we looked for each other whenever we were outside and conversed as best we could whenever there was a little lull in traffic. She told me about herself and her family and I told her about mine and we both felt we made a friend, even if it was at a distance. When I was six years old, my family decided to move to a new location, and wonders of wonders, it happened to be in the same apartment house that Annie lived in. It was around the corner of the other side of the street. When Annie and I saw each other in the hall of that building we jumped for joy and spent almost all of our time together from that day on, on the same side of the street.
When I was nine years old, my family moved again, and Annie and I were heartbroken at the thought of not seeing each other anymore, but even though we went to different schools, we were still in the same town so we did bump into each other now and then and it was like we had never been apart. We kept in touch over the years and the friendship continued even after we both moved to other states. The year before last I visited Annie in Arizona and we spent a few hilarious days in Las Vegas, then this year she came east and we met in New York City for lunch and a Broadway play. So now I guess you could say we're getting to the other side of the country and love being able to tell people how we've been friends for over 65 years.
Not long ago I got a package in the mail from Annie. In it was a ceramic heart with this inscription: "Friendship is a promise made in the heart, unbreakable by distance, unchangeable by time.” I love it.