Tales of Enchantment

The Neighbor

Knock-knock.

That's how I got sucked in. He was a cheery man at my front door. A friendly smile and fine tailored clothes, a checkered vest and a pair of spectacles. He waved and shook my hand. Told me his name, but I'll simply refer to him as "The Neighbor" or "That One." He was announcing his purchase of the house across the street.

It was a quaint piece of land, lots of bushes and trees, but a good yellow and tan house with an archway over the door and a large windowpane in the front.

"I just thought I'd pop in," he said and I could have sworn he had a crackle to his voice like he was on the phone. "Didn't mean to bother you, but you're free to stop by."

I thanked him, and he went back off the lawn to his own little bit of heaven. The Neighbor was so cheery, I didn't know what to think of him. We had plenty of decent folks around the block, and they weren't all bad. Mrs. Grayfield was an old widow who took care of a nasty cat, but she was a sweet ol' dame. The Jordans had two rascally boys of their own, and the couple were always helping out around town. The boys weren't too much trouble. A bit noisy at times, but they were just kids. And the Fredericks didn't have any kids but a lot of nieces and nephews, so they always had someone over.

Possibly too much information for you, but I was recently laid off so I had plenty of time to explore the neighborhood. The Neighbor was simply another person to get to know right now.

I woke up in the middle of the night the day he arrived and was hungry, but as I sat up in bed, I saw something out the window. There were these bizarre lights coming from the Neighbor's house. There were red lights, blue lights, yellow lights, all flickering out his window. I pegged I was tired, so I went back to sleep, but the ideas were already generating that something weird would happen.

The next day, I took the Neighbor up on his offer to pop in. He was in a jolly mood. He was impressively unpacked and set up for life in the suburbs. His furniture looked like the stuff of antiques or things you'd find in a grandma's house. But the Neighbor was not old. Maybe two or three years older than me. He was old-fashioned, but only in appearance.

We talked for a bit. I sat in one of his armchairs in the living room. I noticed the door to the basement had a big padlock on it. I knew it was the basement because there was a tiny plaque on the door that said where it led. And that wasn't the strangest thing. There was a spot of red liquid on the floor by the kitchen.

"You spilled something?" I asked, and Neighbor's smile grew a bit concerned.

He told me he wasn't quite ready for guests yet, even though we had been talking for ten minutes, and then he told me to leave. As I left, I looked through the windowpane and saw him scrubbing the floor where the red was.

The next time I saw the Neighbor, it was at the grocery store. I was going to fill out an application, and as it turned out, the Neighbor was the one giving out jobs. He said he had a job opening up at his company. What that was, I wasn't sure. But he told me to meet him in his garage the next morning.

Obviously, I stayed up all night, wondering what kind of job this guy would have me do. Scenarios replayed in my head of me eventually being chased by a cop car or ending up dead in a river.

In the morning, I scurried over to his house and found him in the garage with table after table of boxes. He was at one and placed a tea set in stuffing. He wished me a good day and said I'd be making deliveries. He pulled out a red bike with a crate on the back and proceeded to hand me a helmet. "To be safe," he said.

The Neighbor loaded my basket with small boxes and addresses. Then he went back to his packing area, and while he failed to notice my imagining, I saw him take a teapot, press it against his lips and kiss it before packing it up. The man was obviously passionate about his work.