After talking to people at work all day long, I want to relax in silence, alone with my own thoughts for a change. We live in a cul-de-sac with no neighbors around. And now we have one. A big grouch.
Quite honestly, I didn’t expect him to come out. It’s midnight, so I’m not sure why he wasn’t in bed sleeping, because everything around here is long asleep by that time. Including me. I have to open the diner for breakfast, so my nights are usually cut short too. Today has been a planned exemption due to the full moon—I wasn’t lying.
So when I was sitting here, minding my own business, and he strode toward me like an angel of fury with a dark cloud behind his back, I was surprised for a moment. His walk was angry. His posture too. His body was coiled and ready to attack like a cobra. And yet, I didn’t feel scared as I should have been. In fact, the opposite. The more aggravated he became, the funnier it was for me. Until it wasn’t.
“Why were you naked?” Cheryl’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts.
“I wasn’t planning on it.” I chuckle. “Grandma said I need to try cleansing my energy. It might be the reason everything doesn’t work as it used to.”
At the mention of the cleanse, Cheryl’s eyes roll so far backward, I fear they’re stuck there now.Drama queen.
“Grandma says bathing in moonlight during specific times can help cleanse one’s energy and prep it for new beginnings. The more moonlight can touch your skin, the better the clarity.”
Her sigh is loud enough to let me know what she thinks about my plan. This is why I always got along better with Grandma than with her—Cheryl and I have always been like fire and water with nearly zero understanding. It has never stopped us from loving each other though—thanks to our grandma who cultivated that understanding in two young, orphaned girls.
“But honestly, I saw him only when he was already like right next to me. It was too late to be modest.”
“Could have thrown the sheet over yourself,” she says sarcastically. “You know, if youreallywanted to.”
“It was closing in on midnight, and Grandma said it has to be the exact time for the rays to hit the right way.” I try saying it convincingly so even I believe it. The truth is that somewhere along the way, I started enjoying our little yelling match a little too much.
A heavy silence speaks volumes about what she thinks about my antics. I’m used to it though. Some time ago, it bothered me. When I was younger and had just returned to Big Love. But not anymore. I own who I am and don’t pretend to be something I’m not just to make everyone around me comfortable.
“I’m going back to the station. Can you please try to refrain from going onto his property again?” Her gaze dips to the sheet covering my front. “Especially naked.”
“Can’t promise,” I tsk. “Too tempting.”
“Nora,” Cheryl growls. “I’ll have to book you if you keep trespassing. Or he can shoot your ass. He looks like a guy who knows how to use a gun. And probably has one.”
I let out a loud snort in response—I imagine him to be more the type to go in bare-handed for the sake of a brawl.
She walks up to me and stares in my face with narrowed eyes. “You really enjoyed messing with him, didn’t you? Haven’t seen you like this since Dick.”
Feeling my mood plummet, I say through gritted teeth, “Thanks so much for bringing it up.”
“Sorry,” she whispers softly. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s fine.” I wave her off. “I won’t go onto his property.”
She watches me for a few more moments before she walks away to her cruiser, waving me goodbye. “I’ll stop by tomorrow for a coffee and bring something sweet.”
“Yep.” I wave back, not very enthusiastically, and head back to my house.
4
Jericho
I wake up to a loud shrieking sound. Prying my eyes open, I find the room barely lit from the light outside. I was battling with my crazy neighbor at midnight, and when I came back home, I couldn’t sleep for a long time. Not when the memories I’d rather forget were brought up.
I try going back to sleep for another hour of shut-eye, but the sound continues, stronger than before.
What the fuck?
Padding toward the window, trying to rub my eyes of sleep, I peek outside. No one is there. The sound repeats. I go around the house checking all the windows but find no intruders this time.
The sound keeps coming. The more awake my brain is, the more the sound resembles that of a rooster. A psychotic rooster who forgot how to cock-a-doodle-doo, because whatever sound is coming out of his beak is not it.
When I make another round about the windows on thesecond floor of my house, I find the source of the disruption. It is in fact a rooster who’s standing in the middle of my neighbor’s backyard and yelling from his very mighty throat. What stuns me is that I can see the motherfucker clearly with no peach trees supposedly obstructing the view. Meaning the moonlight would have hit her just fine if she’d been on her own territory.
