Word Count:\u00a0 354<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the guy next door. Lived there for as long as you can remember. Was about thirteen or fourteen, you think, when his family moved in. Nice people, stuck to themselves but were there if you needed a hand. The father was a decade or more older than you and your husband. The wife was short, pudgy, with springy red hair. Pleasant, always smiling. They were normal, just normal, and so, you thought, was their kid.<\/p>\n

They died, let\u2019s see, about seven years ago now. She first, from a cancer that ran through her in six months or less. He from a heart attack a few months later. The kid still lived with them, still lives there now. Never married, but keeps the place up nearly as nicely as they did. Though you never see him much anymore.<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, the last time was during the freak storm in the winter. He helped your husband snowblow the walk and the driveways. You asked him in for hot chocolate when they had finished but he drank it standing outside on the porch.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to make the connection between this young man and the guy on the news who they say just killed at least thirteen people. Injured twenty-something more. The youngest, a six year-old girl found dead next to her mother at the scene. Still holding a blood spattered Barbie doll. It doesn\u2019t seem real.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing you can do except shudder. Make the sign of the cross for those who have died. For their families, their pain plainly seen in the videos they\u2019ve been running all day. It\u2019s hard to imagine, hard to accept, and you pray the victims are not one of your neighbors too.<\/p>\n

You get up and check all the windows, make sure you\u2019ve locked all the doors. There are police cars and vans lining the street, still you can\u2019t help the fear and you jump when the furnace turns on. And just before bed, after the eleven o\u2019clock news, you draw all the shades and hope that they catch the guy next door soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count:\u00a0 354 He\u2019s the guy next door. Lived there for as long as you can remember. Was about thirteen or fourteen, you think, when his family moved in. Nice people, stuck to themselves but were there if you needed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[25,24],"class_list":["post-1299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2012","category-horror","tag-100-days-2012","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1300,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1299\/revisions\/1300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}