The New Neighbor

that buffoon for nearly thirty years and it had taken a neighbor to make her realize that those years had been wasted.

Sometimes – yes, she could admit it to herself – sometimes she just wanted to kill him.

The television was on in the living room and Ed was sprawled in front of it on the sofa, grumbling about the amplified voice that echoed through the chilly afternoon outside.

Betty squatted in front of the counter and opened one of the lower cupboards. No luck.

A draft was coming in from beneath the back door and she felt it on her bare feet, thinking vaguely that something needed to be done about it as she opened another cupboard.

Her back was to the door, so she didn't see the mist curling in beneath it, didn't see it rise and begin to take shape.

No Skippy. Damn. She closed the cupboard, stood and turned.

'Hello, Betty,' Lorelle whispered.

Betty slapped a hand over her enormous breasts and leaned back against the counter. 'Good Lord, you scared me. You… you're… ' Lorelle was naked. Betty looked around, confused. 'How'd you get in here… like that?”

Lorelle ignored the question, stepped forward and placed a hand on Betty's round cheek. 'Do you hear that voice outside?”

Betty nodded.

'That's the voice of a man who wants to hurt me. He's saying things about me that aren't true. Awful things. And he's saying them over a loudspeaker.'

Betty's eyes were wide and her mouth curled into a small O as she stared dreamily at Lorelle. 'Why?' she asked after a long time.

'Because he's jealous.'

She slid her hand down Betty's flabby neck…

'He's jealous of what we have, what I can give you.'

… down her chest to one enormous, liquidy breast, which she caressed and cupped, rubbing her thumb over the nipple.

'He wants what we have. He'd snatch it up in a second. But he thinks it's wrong. He thinks it's bad. But we know better, don't we Betty?'

Betty nodded, her eyelids drooping heavily as Lorelle moved her hand down Betty's side, over rolls of fat and around to her back, where her fingers massaged firmly, then gently, firmly, gently.

'He's someone you know, Betty. You have to resist him if you want to see me anymore. You have to show everyone how wrong he is. You have to make him go, Betty. Him and the reporters. All of them. Do you understand, Betty? You have to make them go.'

Betty nodded as Lorelle's face came closer and closer and their lips finally touched. Lorelle's tongue slipped in and out of Betty's mouth and she sucked on Betty’s lips.

The kiss was too much. Betty felt her strength giving out, felt her knees bending beneath her, then she lost consciousness as -

– Lorelle eased Betty to the floor in her arms effortlessly, then turned and went into the living room where she stepped in front of the television, smiled and said, 'Hello, Ed.”

* * * *

The mist eased through the neighborhood, shifting direction now and then. A single swirl moved over the surface of the mist like a small and lazy tornado. It went from the LaBianco house to Sheri MacNeil's, where it disappeared for a little while…

… then across the lawn to the Weylands’ houses…

… and later, to the Parkers…

… from house to house…

… to house…

Chapter 21

Observations

The two remaining reporters and their crews stood watching the white pickup go back and forth, listening to the bizarre warnings coming over the loudspeaker. Finally, Alana Carson, the reporter from KCPM 24 in Chico, left her cameraman and assistant at the car and approached the van with KRCR 7, a Redding channel, painted on the side.

'Does this go on a lot around here?' Alana asked as she approached the young man standing beside the van. He was tall and thin with blond hair, in his late twenties.

'I don't think so,' he said. 'But then, I'm kind of new to the area. For all I know, people do this a lot here. Do you understand what he's saying?'

'I'm not sure. Do you know who he is? Are you familiar with his church?'

'No. But I'm going to get familiar with it.'

'Any idea what woman he's talking about?'

He shook his head, then smiled at her and said, 'By the way, I'm Steve Lang.'

She introduced herself, shook his hand, then their attention returned to the pickup as it drove by them again, heading north.

'You must cling to all that is good within you,' Quillerman said. 'Turn to god, turn to your families, use your love for each other to resist whatever temptation this creature puts before you.'

Steve said, 'He sounds batshit crazy.”

'Most likely,' Alana muttered.

'In the book of James, we read, 'But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire. Then when the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it reaches maturity, produces death.'

'But we don't have to be afraid of that temptation,' the echoing voice went on, 'because Peter has told us that 'the Lord can rescue you and me from -”

The pastor's voice gasped over the loudspeaker and the pickup screeched to a lurching stop because -

– an enormously fat woman in a teal and purple muumuu jogged into the street with surprising speed, her entire body jostling with every step – large, flabby breasts flailing up and down, rolls of fat around her neck and torso flopping – until she stepped directly in front of the pickup.

'Later,' Alana said abruptly, waving to her cameraman to come over as Steve and his cameraman approached the pickup, where -

– the fat woman walked to Quillerman's door as he rolled down his window and gave her a broad smile, hoping for the best.

'I don't know what you think you're doing out here, Pastor Quillerman,' she said in a nasally voice, 'but I wish you'd stop. Somebody's liable to call the police on you for yelling through that thing.'

'Hello, Betty,' the pastor said pleasantly as he leaned his elbow on the edge of the open window. 'I'm glad you came out. I'd like to speak with you about a -'

'What are you doing out here, anyway?' she asked, ignoring him. 'I mean, driving up and down the street, talking nonsense through that damned speaker -'

'Excuse me, ma'am,' Steve said as he came up behind her holding a microphone. His cameraman, Malcolm, stood behind him, camera operating. 'Could I have a word with -'

Betty spun around and aimed her forefinger at Steve like a gun. 'You just stay away from me with your