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THE NEIGHBORHOOD STREET

by linzy bruno  
12/08/2022 / Short Stories


 

It was the summer I just turned eleven and things were as wild as usual on our neighborhood street; my family’s way of coping was to simply pretend everything was normal. “Mom, Suzette’s being a brat!” I’d say, expecting her agreement and support and she’d reply: “So play with Terry today.” One really great thing about our mom though; she would drag my sister, De and brother, little Richard and me to church every Sunday. We’d try to play quietly, but always end up getting “the shhhhh.” Still somehow, faith seemed to absorb directly into my pores and it’s been growing ever since. What was also wild about our street was how we could play carefreely; never having to look out for traffic.

Unlike most neighborhoods that have several connecting streets, ours was one, all-inclusive street with a circular ending and a telephone poll gracing the center. After that point, without even a protective wall or fence, was a sudden drop; a ninety degree cliff about one hundred feet deep, which made it seem like our street bordered the edge of the world; one house was particularly close to the edge.

The funny thing was, the strangest of occupants always seemed to live there, but never for longer than a year or two. Most of the houses had between two and four kids, with the largest and the loudest right at the street's entrance. That one had five girls. There was a long stretch of road between that house and the next, then a steep hill we kids referred to as “the big hill, and then a small one we called: “the little hill.” I was invited to the first house only once for lunch, but the mother sent me home when I made a few disapproving faces at the pea soup she was serving. At the top of the big hill was the next house. They had two kids, but the only reason any of us knew that was because in nice weather their desperate little faces could be seen pressed up against the fence that kept them caged in their backyard.

Directly across from them, was the house where the old couple lived, no kids lived there and if any of us so much as put a foot on their yard, they would scream: “Get outta there, go play in your own yard!" Then down the street, near the little hill were two houses across from each other. My cousins, Terry and Victor lived on one side and a girl named Suzette Slater and her brother Trenton lived on the other, with their easy going, cool as hell mother and quick tempered, alcoholic father. They also had two mean dogs; one little one that never seemed to go outside and a big one that never seemed to go inside; a Saint Bernard they called "Brutus!" “He has a lot of diseases and he’s blind, that’s why he’s so vicious,” Suzette would remind us.

One day my cousin Terry and Victor and I were in Suzette’s backyard, near the dog house where Brutus lived, just at the edge of the deep forest which lined all the backyards on the street. “Victor, what are you doing?” Terry asked, when it appeared he was about to put his hand on Brutus’s back.

“He’ll bite you!” I added to help her make her point with him. “We’re going across the street. Stay away from Brutus! Come on Terry, let’s go play Barbies on your front porch,” I suggested.

“Okay,” she replied; running toward her house. We’d been playing for around forty minutes. The neighborhood was completely silent, not even a bird chirp or one car driving by; when suddenly we heard a blood curdling scream.

“Oh my God,” Terry shouted. "That sounds like Victor!" She ran into the house to get her mother.

The next five minutes seemed like hours, as we stood there on her front lawn, nervously awaiting Aunt Lacy to appear on Suzette’s front yard with Victor.

“Ahhhhh,” we both gasped when we saw his bloody clawed face and deep wound from being bitten on the neck. He was near passing out and then Aunt Lacy rushed him to the emergency room.

“Hey, let’s go and talk to Suzette about this!” I suggested.

“Yeah!” she replied.

We stomped our feet all the way to her front yard. Terry stood back, while I knocked hard on the front door. “She knows we’re here,” I said to Terry when a few minutes passed. “That’s why she’s not coming to the door."

Terry nodded and spat the tears that had run into her mouth.

“You know, I bet this wasn’t all Victor’s fault. I have a feeling Suzette dared him to touch Brutus!” I muttered in this scream-under-control way I have; in certain stressful circumstances anyway.

Just then, the door flew open. “Well, whadaya want Linzy?” she asked; her eyes swollen and red, her tone, not surprisingly irate. “I can’t talk right now! I have a problem!”

“Yeah, we know all about it. Brutus just almost killed Victor! Terry’s mom just took him to the emergency room. Your parents are gonna have to put that beast down! and you dared him DIDN'T YOU!?” I screamed no holding back.

“I WOULD NEVER!” she screamed back. “I've heard you and so has Terry and De. You always dare him and this time it worked, didn’t it?”

“Well, stupid idiot that he is!” she screamed, slamming the door in my face.

I went back to where Terry was standing; huge tears were still streaking lines through her pink freckled face.

“Don’t you worry Terry; Victor’s gonna be alright,” I said as we slowly walked back to her front porch.

 We sat there, staring at our Barbies; not saying a word. A few hours later, Aunt Lacy pulled into the driveway with Victor all cleaned and bandaged up. “He’s okay!” Terry shouted, hugging me.

The following day; Suzette’s parents had Brutus put to sleep. “Let’s stay away from Suzette's house for a while” I said to Terry when we heard the news.

“Do you think she’ll ever stop being mad at us?” Terry asked.

“Oh….who cares anyway! All she does is brag about her prizes she’s won doing horse shows and the homemade Barbie clothes her grandmother makes for her!”

“Hahaha,” Terry replied. “She does do that, doesn’t she….And you know what else? My mom says Suzette’s father is an alcoholic.”

“Yeah, my mom says that too. I wonder how they even know that,” I replied, but I was really thinking: ‘yeah and so is your dad; that’s why your mom had a black eye last month, because your dad was drunk and clocked her one, but I knew that was better left unsaid, so I kept my mouth shut.

The rest of that summer, Sandy, who lived in one of the two houses that bordered the scary cliff edge, and my sister De, who were usually inseparable, were fighting, so Sandy called to ask me to play with her. “When those two fight; Sandy always asks me to play, like I won’t notice I’m her second choice.” I said to my mom after I hung up the phone, but all she did was giggle a little.

‘She never listens to me, but she’s not nearly as bad as my dad,’ I thought. Then I went outside to meet Sandy. “So, what should we do?” I asked. "Terry and I usually play hopscotch, jump rope or Barbie’s….once in a while we ride bikes. We play with our Barbies outside too, so her father doesn’t blow his top in our faces. He’s always mad for one dumb reason or another."

“I have Hacky Sack cards we can play with,” she replied.

“Oh, I have some of those,” I said; running toward my house to get mine.

The following week, De and Sandy were friends again. It seemed everyone was outside playing, even Suzette on a particularly sunny weekday afternoon. Ryan Bradac, the cute boy who lived directly across the street from me, stood in his front yard and hollered: “Everyone who wants to play Red Rover, come over to my front yard!” Ten kids immediately came running over. When I got there, Ryan tugged on the back of my shirt. I looked at him as if to say: “Yeah whadaya want?

“Just letting you know I’m here,” he said, with an enticing smile appearing across his lips. ‘Oh that Ryan is so cool,’ I thought, but my dreaming was interrupted by the sight of my sister chasing Ryan’s little brother Ricky around the yard, until she caught him. Then she tackled him to the ground and kissed him right on the lips.

“She’s always showing off that she’s the fastest runner and kisser.” I whispered in Ryan’s ear.

He smiled at me, with a look in his eyes that I’ve never seen before. ‘I think he’s starting to like me,’ I thought.

Then, after De pulled Terry’s pants down in front of everybody; we played Red Rover as soon as Terry stopped crying. “Red Rover, Red Rover, let De come over!” our team shouted together.

De came at us; running like a panther.

“Ouch! That little brat! She’s so busy showing off, she doesn’t even care if she hurts me,” I screamed, when I was sure she wasn't listening.

“It looks like Suzette is finally getting over losing Brutus,” said Terry.

 “Yeah, I guess,” I replied, still rubbing my arm. The next day, De and Sandy were back to fighting, so Sandy called me again. I ran down to her house. Her brother, Jeff let me in and said:

“She wants you to wait for her in the cellar."

'That’s odd,’ I thought, but I went down there anyway.

In a few minutes, Jeff started coming down the cellar steps, wearing nothing but a towel, sticking out over his privates. He walked right over to me and opened the towel!

I screamed and ran out of the house and never went back there again unless my parents were with me. I ran all the way home.

The following summer, most days Terry, De and I spent at the Bradacs: mom Chancey, dad Phil and kids: Steven, Ryan and Ricky. We saw Phil very rarely and Steven, well he was much older than the rest of us; all he ever did was play air guitar and suck his thumb while shooting baskets in the driveway.

 We usually played with Ryan and Ricky. Chancey was always inviting us to weenie roasts and to help her with arts and crafts. She owned a craft store. Sometimes we’d help her bag beads for the store and she would even let us have some to make things with that we could keep. One day, we were all sitting around their huge kitchen table; bagging beads and I asked her: “Why does everyone call you Chancey?”

 “Oh, because my dad loved to gamble so he gave me that nickname when I was a kid.”

“Oh that’s funny,” I replied. “What’s Ryan up to today?” I inquired.

“Oh, he’s out in the garage, skinning squirrels and rabbits he trapped in the woods. He also spent the past two days making a path in the woods for you guys to use as a shortcut to the candy store. And did you know, I have a deer in the backyard? I found him on the side of the road with a broken leg. I’m nursing him back to health. Come on, I’ll show him to you, but just don’t touch him!”

We couldn’t believe it, there in the yard on an old blanket near the woods, was a deer! ‘These people are the coolest,’ I thought. I wonder if Chancey knows I’m gonna marry Ryan one day. I started twirling my hair and day-dreaming about the time he killed three yellow jackets to protect me from getting stung and the time he kissed me with his tongue sticking out, but just for a second.

 “Hey Linzy, come on, we’re gonna have a weenie roast, help me bring out the ketchup and mustard and paper plates,” called Chancey; interrupting my day-dream. I went back to my day dream for a minute and then I looked out their picture window and I saw Cindy, their blood hound, sunning herself in the middle the street and I said to Chancey: “That’s the spot the little boy takes a crap sometimes early in the morning; the one who lives near the cliff,” but she already went outside, so I grabbed the ketchup and mustard and went out to join the others in the backyard.

Then the summer I turned sixteen, that family with the boy who pooped in the street moved away and a young couple, Trudy and Bob and their one month old baby moved in. Trudy became my mentor. “Come over anytime you want after school and I’ll teach you all there is to know about baby care and maybe you can be my babysitter.”

“Great I’d love that!” I replied, but there was something very strange about Trudy.

“Do you like those creeps across the street?” she asked me one afternoon. I didn’t know what to say, being they were very nice people, so I just gave her the shoulder shrug.

“That guy, what’s his name, Don? Well, he keeps staring at me through his bedroom window, which looks right into mine, but I fixed him….you know what I did?”

“No….what?” I said, even though I was almost afraid to ask.

“I lifted up my shirt and flashed my chest at him. I did it quick, but I know he saw. He’ll think twice before messing with me again and now I’m gonna get out my spell book and put a hex on him!”

I just nodded and walked away. I started heading home; shaking my head all the way. ’Well, now I’ve heard everything,’ I thought. ’Is there anything normal that happens around here?’ I wondered.

A year after that, Trudy and Bob and their baby moved away, much to the relief of the family who lived directly across from them!

Years later, after graduation, I enrolled in Community College. On my second day walking to class; I saw a man who looked just like Ryan.' I must be dreaming,’ I thought. I found my classroom and sat down toward the back of the room. About half way through the psych lecture, I felt a strange, but familiar tug on the back of my shirt. I turned around and it was Ryan!

“Hey, how’ve you been?” he asked, with a look of intrigue on his face.

“Good….long time, no see,” I replied, trying to seem appealing.

Then the professor started to speak: “As I told you yesterday, most of this class will focus on the many varying types of family dysfunction. In fact, dysfunction is so common, today it’s considered “the norm.”

 Ryan and I just looked at each other and both whispered: “We should get an easy A in this class!”

Then I whispered: “Ya know, I gotta tell ya; I’m shocked you’re taking a psych class. You were always such a tough hunter type.”

“Yeah, I got tired of studying animal behavior and decided it would be more interesting to study a bit of human behavior,” he said with a sexy little smile.

After class, Ryan held my hand and we started walking. “So how’s the sibs?”

“Good, we call little Richard, Rich or Richard now, how bout' Steven and Ricky?”

“Oh, they’re good, but I’m a lot better, now that I ran into you……“So did you ever get married?”

“No, how ‘bout you?”

“No, I haven’t met Ms. Right…..till now…..you wanna marry me?”

“Only since I was eleven, but I do have to ask you one important question……do you believe in God?”

 “Are you kidding? In the neighborhood we were brought up, how could I not? Besides, after spending a million Sundays not paying attention in church, what else would I believe in?”

Ryan and I became “an item” after that.

I fell more and more deeply in love with him and couldn’t concentrate on my school work. I didn’t make it through to the next semester, but we did get married a few years later and we’re still living happily ever after, with minimal family dysfunction!

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Linzy has been writing for many years; seriously since her 3 kids were still young and inspirational. She has taken 2 courses in Bible studies and completed "Four Soils" Bible study course in a 26-month period; earning her certification in Bible Counselling.

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