The Man Across the Street

He just had a certain look, that caused her mood to spoil upon seeing him.

She and her husband had moved her three years ago and she had quickly melded into this suburban existence. She enjoyed the block club, volunteered at the garden club and had martinis each Wednesday with the other young wives.

No one looking at her could say she didn’t fit in or was not a part of the neighborhood. What was it about this man across the street?

When the bad things started to happen, it was then only natural for her to point a finger across the road and gossip that it was surely him at fault. 

At first it was small animals and birds found dead in the street, their little necks wrung, their heads turned at an unnatural angle. Over time this escalated into larger animals.

Then a few months passed and the little girl came up missing.

Because of the gossip she shared, the man was shunned in the town. His house was egged at night. Paint and scratches traveled up and down the side of his car. He became a recluse, never leaving his home. Keeping the drapes drawn, he seldom saw sunshine. 

Weeks passed and the neighbors next to him noticed a smell coming from the house and they contacted the authorities. Upon breaking into the house, the police found him dead. Laying on his couch. The coroner found that he died of natural causes.

She and the neighborhood breathed a sigh of relief. Good riddance. Now bad things will stop happening.

Three days after he was buried, the little girl’s body was found in a shallow grave behind the garage at the house at the end of the road. The Sheriff arrested a teen who lived there for her murder. It seems he had been honing his craft on animals before moving on to humans.

Roy Richard
June 2023