The Noonday Friends

“You never can do anything except on weekends,” Simone complained. “How can people be friends only on weekends?”

Stiffening, Franny said, “If you don't want to be friends, Simone, then all right.”

Threatened, as she so often was, with tears, Franny, as she usually did, fought them back. “See if I care,” she said airily.

Franny does care-a lot. But what can she do? Her mother works long hours at the laundromat, and her father can't seem to hold down a regular job. And who is going to clean the...