I almost forgot about Thanksgiving. This is out of order but I'm telling it anyway. We had a turkey with the usual side dishes and pumpkin pie. I took the turkey out of the oven and sat it on the kitchen table to cool a bit while I waited for Tom to come home from serving dinner to the guys on base. I came back out a bit later to find George gnawing on a leg. I have a photo somewhere if I can find it.
About two doors down from us was a little space where a tiny store sat. The man sold the papers, smokes, emergency foods for when you needed a loaf of bread or a jug of milk. He was a real nice old fellow who would let you charge something if you needed it. If I had the money, I'd buy the paper off him so I could use the coupons. He would always ask me how I was and did I need anything.
One morning I went in there but I didn't see him. The door was open so he had to be there but he didn't come out. I thought maybe he'd gone to the toilet. I took the paper and left the coins on the counter. I didn't think any more about it. Tom was getting ready to go to work. I sat there drinking my coffee and scanning the paper after he left. I don't know how long I sat there reading.
There was a knock on the door. I was really getting sick of people knocking on my door. If it was a friend they just yelled "It's me." and I'd yell back , "Come on in!" A knock meant a stranger. I didn't like strangers. I went to the door anyway. It was a guy in a suit.... with a badge. I was all worried about who the heck was in trouble now and praying it wasn't Tom.
He began asking me how my morning went. I said the usual. He wanted to know more. I told him. I had nothing to hide.
Then it got scary. He asked me to describe what I'd seen when I went in to buy my paper.. That was a new one. I was instantly on the alert. I told him exactly. I described everything I saw and did. I even told him about the squirrel on the see saw outside. He asked me three times if I'd seen the old man and all three times I said no. He then asked me if the old guy had any enemies.
I'd read a lot of crime novels. I knew what that meant. I demanded to know if the old guy was OK. He wasn't. Someone had come in at some time after he opened up and brought in the papers and blown his head off with a shotgun stealing the twenty dollars he had in the registers, mostly in change. The cop, for by now I knew that's what he was, knew it wasn't me because I wouldn't have left the paper money if it was me.
Besides me the whole neighborhood was in shock. We all wanted to know how this could happen and none of us hear a thing. We lived in fear that if it could happen to such a harmless guy it could happen to us too. I listened to the news a lot after that but nobody ever reported the crime being solved. The store was boarded up for awhile and then torn down. He had no relatives and the town took over the property. They made the kiddie park bigger. I don't think I'd like knowing my kid played where some old guy had been murdered but I'm sure it happens all the time.
Tom got me a small derringer. I didn't have a permit but I carried it with me no matter where I went.
I spent a lot of time in the Penrose library reading books, sometimes just sitting and thinking. I didn't feel safe alone in my apartment anymore.
I think I told you about my clothesline way back in the beginning here but I didn't tell you about my sexy black nighty. there was a woman in the neighborhood who wanted to buy it off me and I refused to sell it. One afternoon I hung it on the line with my other freshly washed clothes to dry.
It was nylon I knew it would dry quick so went back out a few minutes later to check to see if it was dry. All up and down it there were big scorched burn marks. I think she took her lighter to it. There was not a thing I could do about it but after that, I was careful to not hang anything out there that I cared a lot about.
Mary sent Kevin over to get me one day when she had a problem. I got there to find her holding a green ferret. She had him as a pet the whole time I'd known her but he'd never been green. He was normally a beige color. She was painting the walls and ugly dark green color that she got on sale. I could see why looking at the color.
The paint bucket was on the floor and she was on a ladder painting when the ferret decided to investigate it. He made a jump and landed on top of it, sinking inside. Then he ran around till she could catch him. There was ugly green paint everywhere. We somehow got him clean and he lived but I don't know how. We never got all the green paint off the floor or the furniture, though.