Page 13 (1/2)

July 20

Time to move

He’d found a s hehi ivy next door "My nahtened up and shook Theodore’s hand "How do," he said His na fro up his mind about you," said the old man

"Isn’t that cute?" said Theodore

Across the street lived Inez Ferrel She answered the door in a housecoat, a thin wo her

"Oh, that’s all right," she said She had lots of ti on the road

"I hope we’ll be good neighbors," said Theodore

"I’h theas he left

Next door, directly across frohtworker Sleeping sign Dorothy Backus opened the door-a tiny, withdraolad to meet you," said Theodore

Next door lived the Walter Mortons As Theodore ca loudly to her son, Walter, Jr

"You are not old enough to stay out till three o’clock in theas Katherine McCann!"

Theodore knocked and Mr Morton, fifty-two and bald, opened the door

"I justat them

Patty Jefferson let hih the back , her husband Arthur filling a rubber pool for their son and daughter

"They just love that pool," said Patty, s

"I bet they do," said Theodore As he left, he noticed the vacant house next door

Across the street from the Jeffersons lived the McCanns and their fourteen-year-old daughter Katherine As Theodore approached the door he heard the voice of Ja, "Aah, he’s nuts Why should I take his lawn edger? Just because I borrowed his lousy , please" said Faye McCann "I’ve got to finish these notes in ti"

"Just because Kathy goes out with his lousy son" grumbled her husband

Theodore knocked on the door and introduced hi Mrs McCann that he certainly would like to join the National Council for Christians and Jews It was a worthy organization

"What’s your business, Gordon?" asked McCann

"I’m in distribution," said Theodore

Next door, two boys arunted and watched hinored hih the living rooh That’s all"

"Yes, dear," said Mrs Irma Putnam

Theodore’s knock was answered by the undershirted Mr Putna on the sofa Her heart, explained Mr Putnam "Oh, I’m sorry," Theodore said

In the last house lived the Gorses

"I just moved in next door," said Theodore He shook Eleanor Gorse’s lean hand and she told him that her father was at work

"Is that hi at the portrait of a stony-faced old ious objects

"Yes," said Eleanor, thirty-four and ugly

"Well, I hope we’ll be good neighbours," Theodore said

That afternoon, he went to his new office and set up the darkroo, before he left for the office, he checked the telephone directory and jotted down four numbers He dialled the first

"Would you please send a cab to 12057 Sylmar Street?" he said "Thank you"

He dialled the second number "Would you please send a repairet any picture I live at 12070 Sylmar Street"

He dialled the third number: "I’d like to run this ad in Sunday’s edition," he said "1957 Ford Perfect Condition Seven-hundred eighty-nine dollars That’s right, seven-hundred eighty-nine The number is DA-4-7408"

He made the fourth call and set up an afternoon appoint roomuntil the taxicab stopped in front of the Backus house

As he was driving off, a television repair truck passed him He looked back and saw it stop in front of Henry Putnam’s house

Dear sirs, he typed in the office later, Please send me ten booklets for which I enclose one hundred dollars in payment He put down the name and address

The envelope dropped into the out box

July 27

When Inez Ferrel left her house that evening, Theodore followed in his car Don, Mrs Ferrel got off the bus and went into a bar called the Irish Lantern Parking, Theodore entered the bar cautiously and slipped into a shadowy booth

Inez Ferrel was at the back of the room perched on a bar stool She’d taken off her jacket to reveal a clinging yelloeater Theodore ran his gaze across the studied exposition of her bust

At length, a hed and spent a modicum of ti for his coffee, he followed It was a short walk; Mrs Ferrel and the man entered a hotel on the next block

Theodore drove ho, when Eleanor Gorse and her father had left with Mrs Backus, Theodore followed

He met them in the church lobby when the service was over Wasn’t it a wonderful coincidence, he said, that he, too, was a Baptist? And he shook the indurate hand of Donald Gorse

As they walked into the sunshine, Theodore asked them if they wouldn’t share his Sunday dinner with hi about her husband Donald Gorse looked doubtful

"Oh, please," begged Theodore "Make a lonely er happy"

"Widower," tasted Mr Gorse

Theodore hung his head "These ?" asked Mr Gorse

"Since birth," said Theodore with fervour "It’s been my only solace"

For dinner he served lamb chops, peas, and baked potatoes For dessert, apple cobbler and coffee

"I’m so pleased you’d share hbour as thyself" He s, as darkness fell, Theodore took a stroll As he passed the McCann house, he heard the telephone ringing, then Ja, "It’s a mistake, damn it! Why in the lousy hell should I sell a ’57 Ford for seven-hundred eighty-nine bucks!"

The phone sla, please be tolerant!" begged his wife

The telephone rang again

Theodore ust 1

At exactly two-fifteen am Theodore slipped outside, pulled up one of Joseph Alston’s longest ivy plants and left it on the sidewalk

In the , as he left the house, he saw Walter Morton, Jr, heading for the McCann house with a blanket, a towel and a portable radio The oldup his ivy

"Was it pulled up?" asked Theodore

Joseph Alston grunted

"So that was it," said Theodore

"What?" the old ht," said Theodore, "I heard some noise out here I looked out and saw a couple of boys"

"You seen their faces?" asked Alston, his face hardening

"No, it was too dark," said Theodore "But I’d say they were-oh, about the age of the Putnam boys Not that it was the up the street

Theodore drove up to the boulevard and parked Twenty minutes later, Walter Morton, Jr, and Katherine McCann boarded a bus

At the beach, Theodore sat a few yards behind them

"That Mack is a character," he heard Walter Morton say "He gets the urge, he drives to Tijuana, just for kicks"

In a while Morton and the girl ran into the ocean, laughing Theodore stood and walked to a telephone booth

"I’d like to have a swiave the details

Back" on the beach he sat patiently until Walter Morton and the girl were lying in each other’s arms Then, at specific moments, he pressed a shutter hidden in his pal his shirt front over the tiny lens On his way to the office, he stopped at a hardware store to buy a brush and a can of black paint

He spent the afternoon printing the pictures He ht and as if the young couple had been engaged in so else

The envelope dropped softly into the out box

August 5

The street was silent and deserted Tennis shoes soundless on the paving, Theodore moved across the street

He found the Morton’s laer in the backyard Lifting it quietly, he carried it back across the street to the McCann garage After carefully raising the door, he slid the raphs he put in a drawer behind a box of nails

Returning to his house then, he phoned James McCann and, muffledly, asked if the Ford was still for sale

In the , the mailman placed a bulky envelope on the Gorses’ porch Eleanor Gorse e out one of the booklets Theodore watched the furtive look she cast about, the rising of dark colour in her cheeks

As he washe saw Walter Morton, Sr,bushes He heard thee fro no reply to McCann’s angry protests

Across the street fro ho their bicycles, their dog racing around them

Now, across from where Theodore stood, a door slammed He turned his head and watched Mr Backus, in work clothes, stor pool!" Theodore looked to the next house and saw Inez Ferrelthe side of his house, glancing into Eleanor Gorse’s bedroo When she heard the clatter of histhe bulky envelope into a bureau drawer

August 15

Henry Putna," said Theodore "I hope I’ in the den with Irma’s folks," said Putnam "They’re drivin’ to New York in the mornin’"

"Oh? Well, I’ll only be a uns "A plant I distribute for was getting rid of these," he said "I thought your boys ht like theet his sons

While the older one, Theodore picked up a couple of matchbooks whose covers read Putnam’s Wines and Liquors He’d slipped them into his pocket before the boys were led in to thank hihty nice of you, Gordon," said Putnam at the door "Sure appreciate it"

"My pleasure," said Theodore

Walking home, he set the clock-radio for three-fifteen and lay down When the an, he moved outside on silent feet and tore up forty-seven ivy plants, strewing them over Alston’s sidewalk

"Oh, No," he said to Alston in theHe shook his head, appalled

Joseph Alston didn’t speak He glanced down the block with hating eyes

"Here, let me help you," Theodore said The oldto the nearest nursery he brought back two sacks of peat moss; then squatted by Alston’s side to help hiht?" the old ain?" asked Theodore, open-mouthed

"Ain’t say in’," Alston said

Later, Theodore drove don and bought a dozen postcard photographs He took them to the office

Dear Walt, he printed crudely on the back of one, Got these here in Tijuana Hot enough for you? In addressing the envelope, he failed to add Jr to Mr Walter Morton

Into the out box

August 23

"Mrs Ferrel!"

She shuddered on the bar stool "Why, Mister-"

"Gordon," he provided, sether lips that trembled

"You come here often?" Theodore asked

"Oh, no, never’’ Inez Ferrel blurted "I’irl friend"

"Oh, I see," said Theodore "Well, may a lonely er keep you couess" Her lips were painted brightly red against the alabaster of her skin The sweater clung adhesively to the hoisted jut of her breasts

After a while, when Mrs Ferrel’s friend didn’t show up, they slid into a darkened booth There, Theodore used Mrs Ferrel’s powder room retreat to slip a pale and tasteless powder in her drink On her return she sed this and, in rew stupefied She smiled at Theodore

"I like you Misser Gor’n," she confessed The words crawled viscidly across her lolling tongue

Shortly thereafter, he led her, stu, to his car and drove her to a arter belt and shoes and, while she posed with drugged complacency, Theodore took flashbulb pictures

After she’d collapsed at two am Theodore dressed her and drove her home He stretched her fully dressed across her bed After that he went outside and poured concentrated weed killer on Alston’s replanted ivy

Back in the house he dialled the Jefferson’s number

"Yes," said Arthur Jefferson irritably

"Get out of this neighbourhood or you’ll be sorry," whispered Theodore, then hung up

In thethe bell

"Hello," he said politely "Are you feeling better?"

She stared at hiotten violently ill the night before and he’d taken her ho better," he concluded

"Yes," she said, confusedly, "I’ht"

As he left her house he saw a red-faced Ja the Morton house, an envelope in his hand Beside hiht Mrs McCann

"We ust 31