When he told the seller what he was going to do with it, the man wouldn’t take his money.

“He said, ‘Put it in the collection plate.’”

Pat said he would.

He hauled the hut home and built a frame and filled in the fishing holes. He went to a salvage yard and found a pair of jump seats in the back of an old Mazda. He pulled a steering wheel, too, and set to work turning the inside of that fishing hut into a cozy waiting room.

Pat and Michaela Dugan live next door to the Flodmans on this secluded circle near 84th Street and Pioneers Boulevard.

They were here when the family arrived next door five years ago. A.C. was so shy then, Pat Dugan says.

But one day he was out mowing and saw the boy on his Big Wheel. Pat tooled over on his John Deere and the pair raced up and down the long driveway.

“Now we’re just like a couple of buddies,” Pat says. “We’re just good pals.”