Chapter Text
July, 1998
It was gearing up to be a warm summer day when Penguin curiously peeked out his second-storey window as he heard the rumble of a moving truck pull up in front of the house next door.
That house had been home to an older couple before they decided to move further south where it was warmer, like some birds in the book his mom read to him before sleeping. He hopes that his new neighbors have a kid his age, everyone else in the neighborhood was either a big kid, who thought he was an annoyance, or a baby, and he couldn’t wait the few years for them to grow up and learn to walk and play with them.
He silently stares as a fiery red haired woman stepped out of the truck. She looked pretty, with her wide smile, but of course not as pretty as his own Momma with her long midnight blue hair and pale skin, a bit different from his own tan skin, but that's okay, because people say he looks like his papa, and he's super cool, he knows how to sail a boat, gut a fish and is super strong and can pick both him and his Momma up at the same time.
Oh! There's a kid coming out of the moving truck now. He looks just like the momma, same fire-red hair which is covered by a newsboy hat, holding onto a black and white stuffed animal… maybe a panda? Or a Penguin? Which would be cool, he likes penguins too! It was hard to tell from this far away.
The papa left the truck at some point to open the back of the truck, he had darker hair, parted to one side, and a clean face, no beard like his Papa, as the kid ran to the front door, almost tripping and laughing as the momma followed behind him so they could open the door together.
"Penguin, honey! It's time for lunch!" Momma said from his door, distracting him from the new neighbors.
"Momma! There's new people moving in next door! Look, look!" He ran over and grabbed her hand, dragging her to the window, where they saw the momma and papa at the back of the truck while the kid held his arms ready to take a box, stuffed animal still held in his hand, big grin on his face.
"Oh! Look Peng, a new friend! Want to help me bake some cookies for them after lunch? We can welcome them to the neighborhood." she smiled down at him.
Penguin gasped and looked up at his mom, "Can we?"
His Momma let out a quiet laugh and nodded, "Of course! Now let's eat before the food gets too warm. I made a refreshing chilled pesto pasta salad. Perfect for a warm day like today!"
"Okay!" Penguin rushed downstairs, excited to get lunch over with so he could meet his new neighbors.
—
After the hard work of making cookies with extra chocolate chips, Penguin and his momma walked over to the house next door to deliver the cookies.
Penguin stood up on his tippy toes to ring the doorbell as his momma held the plate of cookies and he bounced in place, impatiently waiting for the door to open.
His ears perked up when he heard a high pitched "I'll get it!" and then a woman’s "Not if I get it first!" giggled out as they heard footsteps thundering towards the door, which then flew open revealing the mom out of breath with the kid clinging to her legs, giggling. "Not fair, your legs are longer!"
This close he could see both of them had freckles scattered across their noses and cheeks.
"One day you'll beat me, but not today" she said towards the kid.
Penguin heard his Momma giggle and he smiled too.
"Hiya! Sorry for the ruckus, we just moved in!" The momma waved at the moving truck still parked in front of their home. She had a bit of an accent, but Penguin wasn’t sure from where.
"No worries! We just wanted to welcome you into the neighborhood! We live in that yellow house right there. I'm Cressida and this is my son, Penguin, he’s 6 and will be starting 1st grade in the fall. He saw you guys and was very eager to meet you!"
Penguin held out his hand towards the momma to be polite (‘cause that’s what his Momma said was a good thing to do). "Hello! Nice to meet you!"
"Oh! Aren't you a handsome and charming young fellow!” she said as she crouched to his height, took his smaller hand and shook it. Her hands were soft and she smelled good. Like the first blossoms of spring. “Nice to meet you as well! My name is Saoirse and this is Shachi, he’s only a year younger than you and he'll be starting kindergarten this year! Say ‘hi’ Shachi!"
The other kid, Shachi, peeked out from behind his momma and gave them a shy smile. "Hello..."
Penguin smiled back at him, showing his dimples and gave him a wave.
"Aw~ Hello Shachi! Aren’t you a cutie! Penguin and I made some chocolate chip cookies, I hope you guys like extra chocolate chips?" his Momma looked at Shachi’s momma, holding up the wrapped plate, to which she replied, "Of course! Would you like to come in? It's a bit of a mess with all the boxes we still have to unpack, but a break will do us some good, right Shach?"
Shachi nodded as Penguin and his Momma were let inside.
While the mommas talked at the kitchen counter (Shachi’s papa seemed to be in another room putting a desk together), Penguin and Shachi quietly ate some of the cookies at the small kitchen table.
Shachi seemed to stare at Penguin while he looked around the box-filled kitchen, but when Penguin tried to catch him, he would quickly look away.
After the fifth time, Penguin asked “What?" a bit irritated, which made Shachi jump, startled.
"Ummm, your hair is cool... I've never seen hair like that before..."
Oh. "Uh yeah, it's called uh pie-something… my papa’s hair is like this too… you think it's cool?" he asked shyly, all irritation gone..
Shachi nodded vigorously, his green eyes sparkling. "Mmhmm! Really cool! It reminds me of killer whales, they’re my favorite animal, they’re also black and white. Did you know the color of them can help them sneak up on their prey! So when looked from above it’s hard to see because the black blends in with the water and when looked at from below, it blends in with the sunlight!"
Penguin smiled. It was nice that Shachi thought it was cool. A lot of kids at school thought his mix of dark and white hair was weird and called him Cruella De Vil, like that evil lady in the puppy movie, so he usually wore his trapper hat to cover it up, but he had forgotten it at home in his excitement to meet the new neighbors.
"That’s really cool! I wonder if it’s like that for penguins too… They’re also black on top and white on their bellies… I think killer whales eat them though…” he said, finger on his chin in thought. “I know seals and sharks do…”
“They do! Orcas like to eat penguins, seals, fish, and squid and can eat about 500 pounds of food per day! And they usually hunt together in pods and it can have 40 of them in one! They’re apex predators!” Shachi grinned really wide, his two bottom teeth missing, and if Penguin looked close enough, he thought he could see how unusually sharp the rest of Shachi’s teeth were… Wicked .
“Wanna come over and see my rock collection? I also have some books on Antarctica you can borrow and it might have some more stuff on orcas! Maybe your momma or papa can read it to you!” Penguin suggested.
“Sure!”
—
They asked their mommas to hang out in Penguin’s room and Penguin’s Momma offers to take them both back to their house so Shachi doesn’t get underfoot while his momma and papa finish unpacking and setting everything up.
They run up the stairs to Penguin’s room, Penguin, excited to show off his collection, and Shachi, curious about being in someone else’s house.
As Penguin is showing off some of the smooth, colorful pebbles and quartz, he notices a particular one catches Shachi’s attention. It was somewhat flat, the edges were jagged and had a spiral in it.
“Oh! I got this rock from Kennebunkport! There were a bunch of tide pools and this was in one, but I dropped it and it broke and it had that shell in it. Momma says it’s a fossil! It’s one of my favorites but you can have that one!” he said, handing it to Shachi as his eyes widened.
“Really?” he asked in awe.
“Yeah! I still have the other half so it’s okay!” he assured, happy he can share something he loves with a new friend.
Shachi cradled his new gift in his palm as they talked and played games into the late afternoon.
When Papa comes home, smelling like seabreeze and brine, Penguin excitedly introduces his new best friend to him and all the orca facts he learned from him and Shachi shyly showed off the new gift he had received from Penguin.
Then when Shachi’s parents show up, they introduce themselves to Papa and Shachi once again eagerly shows them the gift from Penguin. Their parents asked each other about what they did for jobs (Shachi’s momma was a hairdresser and his papa was a mortician while Penguin’s Momma was a homemaker and his Papa was a lobsterman), where they were from (Shachi’s family moved from Boston where his parents had met at school), and why they moved (Shachi’s papa is taking over their family’s funeral home; Shachi’s uncle wasn’t interested and his grandpa was getting too old).
It was getting late so a promise to meet the next day was made between the parents and Shachi gave Penguin a hug.
“Thanks for the really cool rock! I’ll take really good care of it!” Shachi said before he and his parents left.
“Momma, I’m happy that Shachi and his momma and papa moved in next to us. We can do so many things together!” Penguin said once he was comfortably in bed after his momma tucked him in and read him a book.
“I’m glad too!” She runs her fingers through his hair, her nails lightly scratching his scalp. Feels nice . His eyes start to close. “We all made some new friends today.” She softly says.
Penguin drifts off, thinking about all the cool and fun things he and Shachi can do together, a smile on his face.
That night he dreams of swimming in the ocean with Shachi, penguins and killer whales.