by Matt Shaner
I looked at Val. She worked on a puzzle in the newspaper. I realized that she wouldn’t care if I was gone for a little while.
“Sure Bryan, I’ll be there,” I said.
“Great, I’ll start setting things up.” He hung up the phone, and I had this mental picture of him clapping and running for nachos and salsa. I told Val where I was going, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and walked out the door.
The heat and the thick atmosphere smacked me in the face. I sucked in a breath, one that really didn’t get me any oxygen because of the humidity, and started to walk. I noticed three figures ahead of me. Evidentially I was the last one to get the phone call. The other three walked and were illuminated every few steps by the streetlights. They didn’t seem to be talking. I planned to enjoy the few minutes of silence.
All of our houses bore some resemblance to the model home. Each had a few custom additions and subtractions. The Grand Estate lived up to its name and billing. By the time I arrived, I worked up a small sweat so I accepted a cold drink from Bryan. The others were downstairs, he told me, as he directed me to a door that stood open next to the main stairwell.
The great room spanned the length of the front of the house to the right. It flowed into a vaulted ceiling with the living room and kitchen taking up the side of the house. Before I could check out anything else, Bryan ushered me downstairs.
The finished basement, like everything else in the place, stretched the length of the house. The northwest corner had some leather couches and chairs in front of a big screen television. A pool table stood in the other corner next to a mini bar jutting out from the wall. Travis stood at the bar. Drew racked up the pool balls. Shawn poured out what looked to be a vodka and coke. A spread of nachos and salsa sat on the bar, waiting for attention. Bryan walked around me, over to the pool table, and before Drew could break, triumphantly placed a piece of paper on the table. Everyone turned to his exaggerated action.
“Can you believe this? Can you? Another development? We moved out here to leave the whole cookie-cutter house thing behind.” He looked at us for reaction. Shawn sipped his drink. Drew looked annoyed at the delay in the game. Travis spoke up first.
“Man, it’s not a huge deal. I mean, we get what, like five cars by here a night?”
“This is an escape for us. This is ridiculous.” Bryan picked up the paper. Drew broke the rack just as his hand moved. Bryan jumped.
“I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you think. I like our house. I like this area. It’s better than our apartment in the city,” Drew said. We all shared a glance. These words were the most he said to any of us since we all moved in.
“It’s only another small group of houses anyway,” Shawn said.
“Yeah, speaking of that, why did they stop at five?” I asked.
“Well, funny you should ask,” Bryan said. “I called Kelly to get details and tell her about my dissatisfaction at this whole issue. She said it’s a quality control thing. The new market is for difference, not sameness. The new development will be totally separate from ours. The construction company was so pleased with the resulting sales that they had no choice. No one wants to be together anymore. The point is to specialize in those who want out of society, not create it.” He stopped to take a breath.
Footsteps started to fall upstairs, little ones from the sound of them.
“Shit,” Bryan said. He turned and started up the stairs, “Daddy’s coming.”
“So, does this mean we’re done for the night?” Shawn asked.
“Hell no,” Drew said. Travis had now grabbed the other stick. “I’m not leaving till I take this guy’s money.” Two twenty-dollar bills sat on the table.
“And I at least plan to have a buzz on for the walk home. Not having to drive is a sweet deal,” Shawn said as he poured another drink. I decided to check on things upstairs. Pool interested me, the drinking didn’t, and I didn’t have anything vested in blowing too much of my night there. Work still beckoned, I checked my watch, in seven hours now. I went upstairs, and no one seemed to notice.
When I reached the top of the stairwell, I heard some heated speech going on in the kitchen. The boys flew by me and around to the formal sitting room. They each had candy in their hands. In the kitchen, Bryan stood almost too close to his wife. She, out of all the wives in The Reserve, was seen and spoken to the least amount of times. I caught the last few lines of conversation before they noticed me.
“The movie was sold out Bryan. I can’t control that,” she said. They both turned and looked at me. She flashed a fake and practiced smile.
“You’re not leaving are you?” Bryan asked.
“Sorry. Sorry. Don’t worry. A heated billiard competition is under way, and Shawn is prepared to take out your liquor supply. You’ll have company for a while,” I said. “As for me. Work will kill me tomorrow if I don’t get some sleep.” He reached out and shook my hand. He leaned in close, like the conversation with his wife.
“Kelly also said something else in the phone call. They want us to form a board, a decision making body. She said that some issues may come up now and then that would require a vote, and rather than the company taking responsibility, we should have control. What do you think?” His eyes pleaded with me.
“Sure. Count me in,” I said. He shook my hand with renewed vigor.
“Great. Our first meeting is next month, on the fifteenth.”
As I walked home, the heat subsided a little, and the dark sent a cooling night breeze across the yards. I couldn’t help but look at the gate. Travis was right. We barely had any traffic. We all moved out here with the idea that, just maybe, everything would vanish when we crossed through that gate. Now there would be workers, equipment, new homes, and new people directly across the street. I could see Bryan’s frustration. Of course, his home was the greater distance from the street.
Later that night, I told Val about the meeting. She thought Bryan was a little weird. I guess we all did. She wasn’t too alarmed about more houses. I think she saw it as a way to make new friends. She liked how separated we were, but in those first few months, she was lonely.
We didn’t know that it would take time for the red tape to go through on the new development, and almost a year later, another model home stood across the street.
Chapter Four
The Closing, Again
In the first year, the board of The Reserve had met a few times. We voted on small things like trash removal and lawn care services. Shawn’s wife, the pregnant one from last year, had their child. Bryan’s boys were another year older. Surprisingly, Mya was not pregnant after living for a year with Travis. Drew and Sarah were the same. Val and I developed our relationship further and enjoyed living in our new home.
One Saturday morning, feeling so similar and familiar, I washed the car outside. Shawn practiced chipping golf balls around his yard, easy when we paid a lawn service ten thousand a year to keep up the looks of the place. Travis was nowhere to be seen, but Mya lay out in the sun. Bryan and his boys threw a football around their yard. Drew and Sarah were inside.
On one of my drying circles, the glare from a passing car hit my eyes, and I looked out to the street. Kelly, in her BMW, pulled into the driveway of the model home. She came out of the car carrying a tray and a carafe of coffee. I watched her make her way inside. She stopped at the door, balanced the cookies, put down the carafe, and put her key into the lock. She wore a different power suit, but I would bet the same day planner would be on the counter. The same spread of business cards would be on the kitchen table. A few minutes after she went inside, a car pulled up and parked next to the curb. It felt like watching instant replay.
Movement caused me to glance to the right. Shawn had stopped chipping and turned to watch the scene unfolding. He made his way in my direction. Before he arrived, I turned, expecting to see the others. No sign of Dr
ew. Mya had not noticed anything. The garage of her house opened, and Travis backed out in his Mustang. A glare of light came from the Grand Estate. The light reflected from a pair of binoculars that Bryan lowered from his head. I’m sure his blood pressure jumped a few notches. Shawn arrived at my side. As he did, another car pulled in and parked behind the car on their Main Street.
“Remember that day?” Shawn asked.
“Like yesterday.” I said. Travis drove by us and out through the gate.
“I can’t believe he isn’t over there protesting,” Shawn said, as he cocked his head behind us in the direction of the Grand Estate home.
“A one man picket line,” I said. “You know, this will be the main topic in our next meeting.”
“When wasn’t it a topic?” he asked. It’s true. Each month closer, Bryan’s nerves rose, and he became more animated. Another car pulled into the other Main Street.
“Their model home looks bigger,” Shawn said. He was swinging the golf club at the air.
“It does, but didn’t it look that way to you when we walked in? It has to show the best stuff, like a movie trailer. Know what I mean?” I tried to stifle that small jealous feeling arriving up from my gut.
“True,” he said, as Kelly emerged from the door. She wore a different outfit from our closing, showing more leg, more expensive. “I can’t believe she’s doing that one too. Crazy stuff.”
“Well, think of the commission from this place alone. It’s a pretty nice check if she can sign them all up like she did with us,” I said as I started to dry the extra spots of water from the car. A small group of people formed out in the driveway of the model home. Kelly stood in the middle. I counted the group in my head. From this distance I couldn’t separate families, but it seemed like more people than our day. They started to all walk down their Main Street.
“We could probably recite the speech,” Shawn said. He looked over to his house. Julia appeared in the doorway, new baby pressed to her shoulder. “Hey, I’ll talk to you later. This new kid thing is like another job.” He stared back across the street.
I looked, and Bryan must have gone inside. I was sure he held the phone receiver up to his ear at that moment, venting to anyone who would listen at the company, or maybe even calling one of us. The group now walked back to go inside the model. I’m sure Kelly enjoyed this part the most, the payoff.
Two days later, an envelope arrived in the mail with the Keystone Realty logo on the front. The letter informed us that our sister development, The Holding, would be breaking ground and also contain five houses including another Grand Estate model. Each family had settled, like us, and each would be moving in as soon as the houses were ready. Whether we liked it or not, our little piece of paradise doubled in size.
The next meeting of the executive board, basically an excuse for a guy’s night each month, didn’t include any bar time or any pool playing. Bryan set up shop in his kitchen. The overhead light cast an ominous, gangster film feel to each of our faces. He poured coffee. Drew lit up a cigar that Bryan clearly detested, but in the interest of good will, decided to ignore. He sat down at the table and looked around at each of us.
“Do you feel it?” He asked. No one responded. “Really? None of you were even a little annoyed this month?”
“Okay,” I needed to cut this off at the pass. “Look, we know what’s happening. Just give it time. It won’t be that bad.”
“We have a gate for God’s sake.” Travis said. I was beginning to like him a little more already.
“You don’t get it,” Bryan said as he wiped small beads of sweat from his brow. “This is how it happens. Soon, the fields next to us will be gone. Then a mall will show up, a movie theatre, and we have a nice view of parking lot.” His voice started echoing off the vaulted ceiling. I wondered where the wife and kids were hiding.
“What can we do, even if it did become a bother? What can we actually do?” Shawn asked.
“I’m glad you asked,” Bryan said. “I’m prepared to take an injunction to the next town council.”
Travis scowled.
“You ask your wife’s permission to leave the house. Come on now,” Drew said with a laugh that sounded too smart. He was the kind of guy who shoved people like Bryan into lockers in high school.
“Just relax. Everyone relax,” Shawn said. “I just had a child here. We are not planning on going anywhere. Before anything gets into a mess, let’s give it some time. In fact, I say we don’t meet again until they move in.” Everyone looked relieved. Bryan seemed to ponder the question.
“Okay, if you don’t believe me, we can put it to the test. We can wait until they get here,” Bryan said.
Drew and Travis stood up from the table.
“Great, now time to get our pool on,” Travis said. “Rack ‘em loser.”
“I’m getting my money back tonight,” Drew said. They disappeared into the basement. Shawn, Bryan, and I sat at the table. Bryan looked dejected.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it will be nothing,” I said.
“Anyway, you’re the deepest place back in here. We’re the ones that have to deal with anything,” Shawn said. He looked at me. Bryan stood up from the table.
“I hope you’re right,” he said. He went and walked downstairs. Shawn and I looked at each other. We followed him into the basement.
Chapter Five
A Golf Ball
A small thing can slowly gain momentum. I’ve seen this happen a few times but never really took notice until the afternoon that things started. I came home from the store and began to unload some groceries. As I was taking the last bag into the house, I heard a window break. The shattering sounded through the still air like a rifle shot. It didn’t sound like our house. I walked out of the garage and looked across the street. Shawn threw open his front door, red faced, holding something small in his right hand.
By now, the homes at The Holding were built. The families moved in, and the ones in the house parallel to Shawn’s contained a teenage kid who liked to hit golf balls. I noticed him in the yard over there a few times driving home and always wondered if an errant hook could end up in my car window. This time it ended up in a different window.
We both looked across the street in time to see the kid, in a polo shirt and golf pants, looking back at us. He turned, dropped the club he was holding, and ran into his house. Shawn pulled next to me on the sidewalk, already in his car.
“You saw that right?” he asked.
“Well, more like heard it,” I said “But I did see him run into the house.”
“Little fucker. This came within two inches of my wife and the baby,” he said as he held up the golf ball. “It took out the entire window. Let’s go.”
“What are you gonna do?” I asked, “He’s just a kid.”
“And his dad’s paying for a new window. Come on, I need a witness,” he said. I thought for a second and decided, hey, this is better than anything I did at work today so I’ll just ride along and see what happens. By the sight of Shawn, I also thought I could break up a fight, if necessary.
We rode the short distance to the gate and through it; he looked for half a second at traffic then gunned the car over to The Holding. He pulled the car into the driveway of the first house, similar to his own if not for the color scheme and some small parts. By the time we were out of the car, a man in a suit and tie walked slowly to us with his son behind him.
“Hi. Tom Fisher, attorney,” he said as he reached out his hand. Shawn put the ball into it and forgot about the shake.
“This came about five inches away from my wife in there,” he pointed to his house and the gaping hole of the broken window from where we were standing.
“Now no need to get excited,” Tom said. I noticed he had loosened his tie. I also noticed that the doors to two of the other houses
in the development were now open with guys standing there watching the situation. I was ready to handle one, maybe two, but more than that would be an issue.
“I usually hit them straight,” the kid said from behind his father.
“Shut up, Billy,” Tom said. He pulled out his wallet and started to count off dollars. I noticed they were all hundreds. “That window is probably the same size as mine. How does two hundred sound?”
“Did you not hear me? That ball almost hit my new born child and my wife and here you are trying to buy me off? You’re an attorney. You’re lucky I don’t call the police,” Shawn said. He inched closer to the man who, just slightly, leaned back.
“How about five then? Five hundred for the trouble. Keep some of it and get yourself something nice, a new shirt maybe?” Tom said and looked down at him.
Shawn, quicker then I could stop him, pulled back a fist and punched, knocking Tom down to the asphalt. The kid looked shocked and bent over to help his father.
“There you heartless son of a bitch, you like that?”
I noticed three guys walking in our direction.
“Hey man, I think it may be time to get moving,” I said.
“I’m calling the police. That’s assault and battery, and I’ll see you both in court,” Tom said as he held a hand over his eye. I didn’t like his cold tone, but thinking about it now, lawyers know how to keep their poise.
Before the others could arrive, we both were back in the car and across the road. The gate shut, and Shawn stopped the car in his garage. He held up his hand and examined the set of bruises forming on his knuckles.
“Imagine how that will look in court tomorrow?” He asked. He looked at me and smiled. Something felt primal, and we shook hands. When I made my way back across the street, I glanced over to The Holding and the driveway where, two minutes ago, what would be the whole downfall of everything, started. A small crowd stood there. They talked, and when I was noticed, they turned to visually escort me into my house.