“Really? That’s so sweet!” Sallie bounced in place. “Can we help?”
“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” Dew added. “What can we do? We want to be part of the community!”
Dunc continued staring, taken entirely off guard by the offer. Most of the families on the street considered his festive nature a little over the top. These two had no idea what they were getting into. Still, every pair of hands meant less work for everyone involved.
“Can you paint? My friends aren’t that great at anything beyond flat colors.” Dunc ventured.
“I’m an interior designer, and Dew’s an architect,” Sallie replied excitedly.
“I’m a mobile applications developer, Sallie,” Dew whispered.
“What’s that?” Dunc had no idea what Dew was saying.
“I make mobile games,” Dew grinned. “Sallie sees me designing buildings and drawing layouts all the time.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, so we can both paint. I help Sallie out when she’s doing art projects.”
Dunc looked at the two. What harm would it do? They were his neighbors, and if they wanted to help, he should welcome them. “We begin tomorrow morning. I don’t pay anything. It’s for fun, but there will be food all day and a party tomorrow night. You can stay as long as you want. No hard feelings if it’s not something you want to do when we get started, and you quit. You can still come over to the party.”
“Is Amanda invited? I’m sure she’d like to help once she finds out what you’re doing!” Sallie glanced back at the house, where she could see Amanda peeking through the blinds. She was giving them dirty looks.
Dunc sighed. “I don’t think your sister wants anything to do with me. Please do not pressure her to help if she doesn’t want to be around me.”
“Oh.” Sallie glanced to the window again, and Amanda was shaking her head, mouthing the word ‘no.’ “I think she might do it for the kids. That and she needs to get out of the house and make more friends.”
“She’s invited if she wants to help.” Dunc’s gaze drifted to the lawn as he idly kicked one of his stakes. He winced as his barefoot struck it, forgetting that he wasn’t wearing shoes. “But she’s not obligated to or anything,” Dunc grumbled and limped to his front door. “We start at daybreak.”
***
“You volunteered me for what?” Amanda almost gagged on her grilled cheese sandwich. Dew and Sallie had made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with five different kinds of cheese for lunch. It was one of Amanda’s favorite childhood lunches. It felt nostalgic yet somehow eerie, sitting with her sister eating grilled cheese sandwiches, just like they used to when they were kids. Dew and Sallie were buttering her up. Amanda swallowed and stared at her sister.
“Dunc builds a Halloween playground in his front yard for Halloween!” Sallie exclaimed. “Isn’t that cute?”
“Yeah. Not quite the word I would use to describe it.” Amanda made a face. She hadn’t seen any sign from her next-door neighbor that he had any interest in anyone in the neighborhood playing in his front yard. Everyone kept out of his yard, adult or child. She had seen someone walking their dog by Dunc’s house and said the dog took a dump in the grass. Dunc had turned on the sprinklers from inside the house. It looked like he had some sort of master setting that made the water spray out like a fire hose all along the perimeter of his yard. It drenched the owner and his dog in seconds.
He did not decorate for Valentine’s Day. Amanda wasn’t even sure she had seen him leave his house for the first half of February. There had been a beautiful little sign for Easter. Dunc decorated his house the same as everyone else for the Fourth of July. Nothing out of the ordinary. Why would Halloween be so different?
“Dunc said he thinks you don’t like him. What would give him that idea?” Sallie stirred her soup and stared at Amanda. “I see you looking out that widow every time you pass it.”
“I yelled at him several times,” Amanda admitted more to the table than Sallie.
“Why would you yell at that sweet guy?” Sallie was aghast. He had seemed so polite and undeserving of her sister’s wrath. “That man is a saint!”
Amanda took a deep breath and recounted the events from the summer. Twenty minutes later, she was staring at her sister and brother-in-law. They were both laughing hysterically, their faces red and eyes watering at what she told them. Amanda was completely confused by their reaction.
“Okay, getting roofied is not funny, but oh wow, he seriously was singing at your door?” Sallie could barely breathe. “Those exact words?”
“And then he broke your railing?” Dew laughed along with his wife.
“Then he showed up and fixed it all without you asking him to?” Sallie wiped her eyes, then turned serious. “Amanda! How could you yell at him and not apologize! It wasn’t his fault.”
“What? Why am I suddenly the bad guy?” Amanda folded her arms and pouted at the pair.
Sallie got up and walked around to where Amanda was sitting. She wrapped her arms around her sister’s shoulders and squeezed her tight. “Amanda! All men are not the J-word!” Amanda stiffened with a sudden burst of anger.
“He was drunk.” Amanda rolled her eyes. “I don’t like drunks, and he was obviously out drinking with his buddies, so yeah, he’s no better than the J-word.”
“But you don’t know that for sure.” Sallie pointed out. “Look what he did for you. He fixed your awful porch. Did
