Michael and David were building a treehouse. Hours passed, but they hadly noticed.
"David, I wish I could be exactly like you," said Michale, as he hammered a board into place.
"Why?" asked David.
"Because you are American and I am German, and everybody at school laughs at the way I speak and the way I dress, but that isn't all. You have a nice American mother, and all I have is an old grandmother who can't speak English, can't drive a card, and can't even cook a hamburger! All we ever have to eat is schnitzel and sourkraut!"
"Boy, I wish my mother would fix schnitzel sometimes. That is my favorite," said David. "And I like you the way you are. You are my first-best friend, and I'd better not hear anybody laughing at you!"
The two boys spit into their hands, pressed their palms together, and said the secret words that meant "First-best friends forever."
Then they climbed up into their finished treehouse and pulled the rope up after them.
"Let those pesky girls try to find us now!" exclaimed David.
The settled down to wait for adventure. Maybe it would be priates, or Indians, or perhaps -- ugh -- GIRLS!
"Why does your hair stick up so funny, Michael?" asked David.
Michael was quiet for a minute before he answered.
"I was trying to comb it so it would lay down like yours, and my grandmother said if I would sleep with a stocking on my head, my hair would be perfect this morning. When I looked in the mirror, it looked like a porqupine. See? She is just dumb!"
"My grandmother lives far away," said David. "She saw me only once when I was little, so she doesn't even know what I look like now. You are lucky to have yours living with you."
"Well, if you like grandmothers so much, you can have mine!" said Michael, and he swung down on the rope and ran away.
When David went to school again, he looked for his friend on the playground, but couldn't find him. The bell rang, so he reluctantly went inside. A sort time later, in rushed Michael with wiry hair sticking out in every direction. He smiled at David as he passed down the row of desks.
Recess time came and all the children pushed to get outside, but the two boys hung back.
"Where were you this morning?" asked David. "I waited for you outside."
"When I got home from the treehouse," Michael began, "my grandmother had fallen and broken her hip. She couldn't get up. She had to wiat for me to come home and call for an ambulance. I went to the hospital this morning to see her, and guess what she said to me. She said that she would have to depend on me now, and she called me her 'little schnitzel'! So I can't play in our treehouse for a while. You will have to come over to my house to play, so I can be there when she calls me."
David smiled to himself, remembering their conversation in the treehouse, but all he said was, "Come on. Let's go find those pesky girls and spy on them!"
On the way to the playground, Michael said, "David, I'll share my grandmother with you, if you like."
"Okay," said David.
Then the two boys stopped and spit into their hands and pressed their palms together and repeated the secret words that meant "First-best friends forever!"