Page 2 of Don’t Get Too Close

But that was a long time ago and nothing I needed to worry about today. Sadly, I was a relative success story. I’d managed to find a warm laundromat to sleep in for a few days before I was assigned a cot in a local church shelter. The nuns weren’t supposed to take in minors, but between the bruises and the desperation in my eyes, they kept me safe when no one else could.

Now I had to keep myself safe.

Which meant keeping my distance from people who could hurt me. And that was pretty much everyone.

My co-workers knew I wasn’t interested in chitchat or friends. And more importantly, my neighbors knew to stay away. Nobody came over and knocked on my door when they needed something and nobody waved me down to borrow a tool.

We all kept to ourselves, and Bob seemed to appreciate our autonomy as much as I did.

I put some frozen burritos in the microwave for dinner and ate on the couch with the TV on. After cooking all day at work, I rarely bothered to cook at home. Besides, dinner was my light meal since I usually ate a plateful of hamburger or chicken before I left the diner.

There was some cop show on, but I kept the volume low enough that I could barely hear what was going on while still being aware of any movement that occurred outside, not that it ever did.

A set of headlights swept across my window, startling me to my feet. A car was pulling into the driveway and flooding the dark lot with unwelcome lights. No one ever came in this late, so I turned off the TV and lamp and then spread the gap between the curtain and the frame to look outside.

I was surprised and slightly concerned to see an ambulance parked in front of Bob’s house. Two paramedics went in with bags, and a few neighbors wandered over to see what was going on. The lights of the silent sirens bounced off the trees and buildings, but that wasn’t enough temptation to get me outside. If I went out, not only would I be expected to engage with the other busybodies, but I’d likely be questioned by the cops. That was a hard pass for me.

Whatever was going on at Bob’s place wasn’t my business.

I didn’t know much about the man and never saw guests come over, but the other neighbors could deal with anything that needed to be dealt with. For me, I was happy to sit in the dark and make sure no one got too close.

After a while, Bob was rolled out of his house on a stretcher with an oxygen mask over his face. The paramedics didn’t seem to be in a huge rush, so I wasn’t worried. The curtain fell back into place, and then I turned the TV back on.

Whatever was going would happen without me.

That was how the world worked. Things happened around me and in spite of me but never for or because of me.

I made sure of it.

2

KACEN

The bed of my truck was loaded embarrassingly high with neatly stacked boxes that I strapped down to keep from moving. It was getting windy and I was getting nervous, but according to my GPS, I was almost there.

And really, if any of the crap I’d packed didn’t make it to Grandpa’s, then I probably didn’t need it anyway.

The homes I’d inherited were a few hours outside the city, just far enough away that it felt like being in the country. The trees grew closer together and the houses were farther apart. When I finally arrived, I turned onto the gravel road and soaked it all in. I hadn’t been here since I was a kid, but it looked exactly the same.

And I didn’t mean that in a good way. On the contrary, it looked like no improvements had been made in decades. The road was rutted and full of potholes that kept me watching my mirror to make sure none of my boxes ended up on the ground.

It was sad that the first time I was back to this property was after my grandpa had passed.

My mom and Grandpa had some falling out that I didn’t know much about, so I hadn’t seen him in a very long time. That was why it was even more surprising when I was pulled aside by an attorney after his funeral and told he’d left me everything. It took a few weeks for me to truly accept what that meant, but then I was given some paperwork to sign and a set of keys. Keys to his house and the homes I now owned but were rented out to long-term tenants. It was a shock, but I accepted the instructions on how to access all of his accounts and copies of the lease agreements for his tenants without a true grasp on what that would mean.

Because like it or not, I was suddenly a landlord.

I hadn’t expected to own a house anytime soon, much less several of them that provided a generous cash flow every month. According to the bank statements I downloaded, the monthly rent payments were enough for me to live pretty comfortably without working at all. And that wasn’t including the interest on his investments.

Grandpa was savvy, it seemed. Though you wouldn’t know it by looking around.

A rush of nostalgia hit me as I parked beside Grandpa’s old truck. The house looked smaller than I remembered, but it had good bones. A few cans of paint would go a long way to cleaning it up to something I’d be comfortable in.

There were several houses and trailers spread along the property, but I’d deal with the tenants later. First, I needed to take a piss. I pulled out the key I was given and unlocked the front door. The smell of coffee and old man hit me like a brick wall, but there were also memories attached to those scents that made me wish I’d come to visit him even once before it was too late.

He must have been so lonely in that sad house.

After opening all the doors and windows to air the place out, I started unloading my truck. I dropped the first box right inside the front door and went back for the rest. It didn’t take long to unload everything I owned, and I was glad I didn’t bring more stuff. The house was full of furniture he’d built or fixed over the years, so I’d probably have to get rid of all the stuff I put in storage when I cleaned out my apartment.