The Good Neighbor Read Online Free Page B

market.” I replaced
the skillet and returned to the table.
    “Wow. A famous chef lives across the street.
That’s awesome.” She was very excited about this, so I didn’t want
to remind her that she may never see or meet him. I enjoyed her
excitement too much to dash it. She stared across the room at her
stainless steel pots and pans for a while before giving me her
attention again.
    “Who else is there?”
    “Directly across the street from Louis, is an
empty house. There was an elderly couple lived there until last
year. They passed away within days of each other. It’s been empty
since.”
    “That’s sad,” she said.
    “Next to that house, right across the street
from me, is Mr. Jenson. He’s a reclusive man. He looks to be in his
sixties or seventies. No wife, no visitors. He keeps to himself. We
don’t know much about him. He’s lived here a couple years.” I
didn’t tell her about his mysterious bags. I was trying to assure
her that living here was going to be great. Telling her that Jenson
could be carrying bodies out of his house in a trash bags would
only scare her.
    “And between him and you, is Bernie
Patterson. I hope you haven’t met him yet.”
    “Why?” She raised her eyebrows as she
asked.
    “Let’s just say, Bernie’s single, and looking
to not be.”
    She nodded, understanding what I meant.
    “He’s getting pretty desperate these days. He
spends all his free time at bars, looking. I’ve seen him bring a
few of those women home. It looked like he’d scraped the bottom of
the barrel if you know what I mean. It wasn’t those ladies’ first
time coming home with a guy they met at a bar. He seems so
desperate to find someone, and so lonely. I feel bad for him.”
    She took our empty glasses to the sink and
rinsed them. I did what I could to not watch, but I only have so
much will power. She was so attractive without even trying. And it
didn’t seem that she knew how beautiful she was. I couldn’t help
but wonder about the kids’ father. I didn’t know the story, but I
couldn’t imagine anyone leaving someone so sweet and so beautiful
and so kind.
    Of course, they say you never really know
someone until you live with them. And even then, you never really
know them.
    “So no one in the neighborhood has kids?” I
could hear the disappointment in her voice.
    “No. But I don’t know everybody. I just know
the people immediately around me. You know, the people I see all
the time. I don’t know anyone on the streets around us. I guess
I’ve been a bit of a recluse myself lately.” I sure hoped she
wouldn’t inquire as to why I’d become such a recluse, not even
going to work.
    She faced me, leaning against the sink. “So
you didn’t say who lives across the street from me.”
    “Oh. That’s Hazel, the sweetest lady you
could ever hope to meet. She’s eighty, I think. She’s a widow.” In
a voice you would use telling a campfire ghost story, I said, “If
you get too close to her house, she’ll feed you. To death, if you
let her.” We both laughed.
    She thought for a moment. “Want a tour?”
    “Sure.” I’d never been farther than the
kitchen when I’d help Elaine carry in groceries.
    After maneuvering around boxes for the tour,
she asked me to stay for dinner. I declined at first, telling her I
didn’t want to be any trouble. She assured me that was silly,
because she had to make dinner anyway.
    “We have to eat whether or not you’re here,
so you might as well stay and eat with us.”
    I got the impression she didn’t want me to
leave. Unable to think of a reason to go, and not really wanting
one, I agreed to stay.
    She introduced me to the kids as they came
inside to clean up for dinner. The boy, Ethan, was handsome and
very well-mannered for only five years old. His sister, Shelby, was
every bit as beautiful as her mother. Two years older than Ethan,
Shelby watched after her brother and mothered him as if he were her
own child.
    It was nice to be with