Maybe not "small world" but "small state" for sure.
When I was like 7 or 8, I lived with my Dad and my sister in the "downstate" section of my state. My sister ran away a lot so since my Dad had nobody to babysit he would enlist the help of our neighbors. We lived in an apartment building and everybody LOVED my Dad and was always happy to help.
One of the neighbors was an older heavyset woman that lived in the apartment above us. She had a niece that visited in the summer so she had toys up there but it became a habit of mine to bring some of my favorite barbies.
One summer her niece was visiting and my Dad had to work so I went up there thinking "Cool, another kid to play with!" Not the case. The other little girl was a bit younger than me but she was MEAN! She would hit me and throw stuff at me and my breaking point was when she took my favorite barbie right out of my hand and RIPPED HER HEAD OFF! I cried so hard and sat in her aunts bathroom until my Dad got home.
Cut to 5 years ago. I'm 21, living about as far as you can go north in my state, and I just started dating this guy. Before he was exclusive with me he had kept trying to pick up this girl at a gas station. She finally told him she was a lesbian and he apologized for trying to pick her up. Eventually they become friendly with each other and he tells her she should come hang out with us sometime.
She starts hanging out with us. She's more partial to me than she is to him. She and I realize we have a lot of the same "ex-friends" and couldn't believe we'd never crossed paths before. We got really close.
The boyfriend breaks up with me out of nowhere and my dear lesbian friend rushes to my aid with alcohol, smoke, and pizza. We stay up all night listening to good music and just talking. Eventually we get on the subject of where we were from and we find out we're both from downstate or "down home" as we call it.
We start talking about how different people are down there and she mentions that people down there are just overly sensitive. I ask her what she means and she tells me a story about how when she used to visit her aunt, sometimes her aunt would be babysitting other kids. Then she goes on to say there was this one girl that had a ratty old barbie and was kind of a whiner. Apparently this little girl got on my friends nerves and she RIPPED OFF HER BARBIES HEAD and the little girl cried and hid in her aunts bathroom until her Dad came to rescue her.
I was like, "Uh... Your aunt... Did she live in an upstairs apartment?" she said yes. "Was that apartment in XXXXXXXXXX?" she hesitantly says yes. I just scream at her, "THAT WAS MY FAVORITE FUCKING BARBIE YOU RUG MUNCHING BITCH!"
We've been best friends ever since.