“Hello daddy, namaste. I want to… “Rosa stopped when she saw the look on her father’s face, as he put down his newspaper and swung around to face his daughter.

George smiled, “and who is this, Rosa?”

“I was going to introduce you to my bestest friend dad, but when I saw the….”

“The look of surprise dear Rosa is that what you meant to say?”

“No daddy. It was a look of….”

“Well, I’m sorry Rosa dear. It was meant to be a look of surprise.”

“What were you surprised about?” asked a nonplussed Rosa.

“Surprised that you came out on the deck to wish me a good evening.”

“Daddy but…”

“Anyway, we can talk about that later, and who is this with you Rosa dear?”

Rosa rolled her eyes. “Daddy, this is my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Anjali Mathur.”

“Hello Mr Blau,” said Anjali with a large smile covering most of her face as she walked forward with her right wing outstretched. George immediately jumped up letting the newspaper he was reading fall onto the deck and shook Anjali’s wing. “Nice to meet you finally. Rosa has mentioned you before, but I’m glad to meet you in person.”

George was going to sit down again on his lounge chair but realised that that would be bad manners. And as there were no other chairs on the deck, he had to stand. “Anjali has come with me from school to teach Julia how to make oatmeal for dinner.”

Anjali laughed. “No, no, Rosa it’s not oatmeal. It’s called daal made out of lentils.”

“But you said it was Indian oatmeal.”

“Well, what I said was it looks like oatmeal, but yellow in colour.”

 “Yellow oatmeal, that sounds really cool.”

The two friends swung around to see Timmy standing in the doorway puffing up his chest so he looked older than his 13 young years. “This is my brother,” Rosa introduced the two of them, “but we ignore him. He’s into science and when he’s not looking at the stars, he’s studying the Torah.”

“What’s the Torah?” asked Anjali not quite sure what to make of Timmy. All she knew was that for the first time ever she found herself blushing.

“It’s what we Jews study. It’s like our holy book….”

“I’m sure you have such books,” interjected George who was also puzzled by Timmy’s reaction to Anjali.

“Yes, we do. We have many. I’d like to see the Torah one day.”

 “Oh, I can get you one right now….”

“Never mind!” interrupted both Rosa and George not wanting Timmy to sweep Anjali away from Rosa.

“Ok I can show it to you another time.”

“Well, hello there,” Sybil joined them on the deck and smiled at the very pretty Robin standing next to Rosa. She then turned to Timmy. “Timmy, if you were the perfect gentleman you claim to be, then you would go inside and bring out some deck chairs for all of us.”

Timmy was deflated. In response, he turned and walked back indoors followed by his father. “What was all that about?” he asked his son as they collected some deck chairs together. “What was what all about?” asked Timmy knowing full well what his father was talking about.

“You know. Man to man, yes, she’s every pretty, but remember she’s probably a Hindu and we are Jewish so you can smile at her, but that’s as far as it will go, plus she’s years younger than you.”

“Dad! She 8 so she’s only five years younger than me. After all, mummy is ten years younger than you.”

“Well,” George had to explain things quickly before they were missed on the deck. “When your 13, 8 is very young. But when you’re 30, 20 isn’t that much of a difference.”

“Dad, just to settle your mind. I think she’s very pretty, but I’m not going to go on a date with her.”

“You’d better not! She is Rosa’s bestest friend.”

“I thought that….”

“Never mind,” interrupted George as they carried the chairs on to the deck. Timmy made sure he opened the chair for Anjali who was still blushing. She thanked him in a very soft voice which made his heart race. Nobody noticed except the eagle-eyed Sybil who never missed anything. She just made a mental note to herself to talk to her son about the birds and bees later before bed.

Julia finally made it outside wearing her apron, which was in bad need of a wash. “Julia, this is my bestest friend Anjali, and I brought her over to show you how to make Indian oatmeal for dinner.”

Julia and Anjali exchanged greetings and then Julia sat down on the only empty chair which was between Sybil and Rosa strategically placed there so she would not be sitting next to Timmy. “So, do Indians have oatmeal for dinner?”

“No, not really. But Rosa thought it sounded like oatmeal when I explained it to her. So, she wanted me to come over and show you how to make it.”

“Oh, you should’ve been here the other day,” Julia said, “because I made a frittata and French fries and Rosa wanted Indian oatmeal with it.”

“Isn’t frittata made with eggs?”

“Yes, yuck!” interjected Rosa hoping to find a friend in Anjali.

“We don’t eat eggs,” continued Anjali, “we are vegetarians and so we don’t eat meat.”

“See, see,” repeated Rosa, “now you know why she’s my bestest friend ever. She doesn’t like eggs either.”

The rest of the family were lost in their thoughts trying to figure a way out of the conversation, then Julia provided it. “Well Anjali, you must show me how to make this Indian oatmeal because if it’s good we can have it every day.”

Rosa was in Nirvana. She was in heaven. Rosa exaggeratedly pointed her right wing up to the sky and shouted, “free at last, thank God I’m free at last!”

“Where did that come from?” asked Sybil keeping an eye on Timmy, making sure he didn’t do anything silly. She had never seen him behave that way before and wanted to make sure he stayed that way.

“I heard it in a movie,” replied Rosa.

“What movie?” asked Julia smirking.

“One of your movies Julia.”

Anjali got up as did everyone else. “I just stopped over to introduce myself. We just moved in here and I met Rosa in class and she wanted me to come over, but I have to go now. I’m sure I will be back soon.”

“Do you……”

“No Timmy. I need you to help me drill a hole,” interrupted his father knowing exactly what he was up to.

“What hole dad? I was just going to ask…..”

Anjali was now fully crimson and begged her leave. She then quickly flew down to the sand down below them. “What was all that about?” Asked a slightly annoyed Timmy. “Dad I’m a grown man. I’m 13. I know I haven’t had my bar mitzvah yet, but at 13 in Judaism I’m a grown man.”

“You maybe, and I must check on that. I believe you have to have had your bar mitzvah first. Plus, she isn’t and I don’t want you to do anything to spoil her friendship with Rosa.”

“Why would Timmy do that?” asked Rosa completely oblivious to what was going on with her brother.

“Nothing Rosa dear,” said Julia, “why don’t you come with me into the kitchen. You can taste test a new recipe for me.”

“What is it?” asked Rosa not completely sold.

“You’ll see,” Julia replied grabbing Rosa’s wing and dragging her towards the kitchen.