The smell of the coffee downstairs woke me up from what seemed like only a thirty minute nap. I could hear the TV downstairs so I knew the kids were awake too. I rolled out of bed feeling like I wanted to just cover my head with the blankets and sleep for half of the day. I slipped on my fuzzy blue slippers that I wanted so badly for Mother’s Day last year and headed downstairs.
“Seriously, Logan if you don’t give me the remote I am going to body slam you!” I could hear my oldest son Garrett saying.
“Dad! Garrett is trying to change the channel when he knows that this is my favorite episode!” Logan said to my husband Shane while squinting his eyes and pursing his lips at Garrett.
“Ok guys, time to turn the TV off anyway and get ready for school,” Shane said while rubbing Logan’s head.
“Morning guys,” I said to them while pouring an extremely large cup of coffee.
“Morning honey,” Shane said as he still stood in the middle of the boys just in case anyone attacked. “How did you sleep?”
“Ugh…awful,” I sighed, still wishing I was under the covers in bed.
“We had a breech last night that didn’t deliver until almost 2:00 am,” I said with my face over the coffee cup, inhaling the scent coming out.
“Could somebody, anybody, please come and wipe my butt?” we both heard coming from the hall bathroom.
Shane laughed, “I’ll take this round.”
It was our three year old daughter Charlotte. She wakes up every morning like clockwork, grabs her tablet and heads to the toilet. Now this is not just any toilet, she must go poop in the downstairs hall bathroom for “the most privacy.” She sits in there for about twenty minutes before announcing she is finished and ready to depart her throne.
“Momma!!” she yelled when she saw me as she rounded the corner to the kitchen and rubbed my pregnant belly.
I picked her up and kissed her little ski jumper nose and ran my hand through her curly blonde hair.
“Good morning baby girl. How did you sleep?” I asked.
“I kept waking up because Garrett was playing his Xbox,” she said while taking a seat at the kitchen table for breakfast.
I turned my head to glare at Shane, who must have felt my stare burning through his shirt.
“He got his homework done early and I told him he could play,” as he put the milk back in the fridge.
“Shane I told you he doesn’t get enough sleep if you let him do that,” I sternly said, still using my glare on the back of his head.
“It was one night Carly. He will be fine,” Shane said, finally looking at me as Garrett walked in the kitchen.
“Ready Dad?” he asked, standing there with his headphones and backpack on ready to walk out the door. He was almost taller than me already, with dark brown hair and brown eyes and the most beautiful smile, if he ever showed anybody.
“Good morning Mom, how are you today?” I sarcastically say to myself since he had yet to notice me this morning.
“Hey Mom,” he said while putting his hood up. “Meet you in the car Dad.”
“He officially hates me,” I said to Shane as I poured another cup of coffee. Wow, I drank that first one really fast!
“He doesn’t hate you Carly. He is eleven years old and going in to middle school. He has a lot on his plate,” Shane said as he walked over to me and stood in front of me so I could help him with his tie.
“Yeah I guess you’re right,” I whispered as I perfectly tied the tie, as usual.
“Mommy? Do you know where my Barney is?” I heard Logan yelling from upstairs.
“Ah ha, somebody still needs me,” I laughed as I ran up the stairs.
“I need you too Momma,” I heard Charlotte say from the kitchen, “but I do prefer Daddy’s chicken tenders.”
I walked in to Logan’s room and he was on his hands and knees looking for his Barney. His walls were covered in dinosaur stick-ons and glow in the dark stars. Logan is the most precious, kind hearted six year-old on the planet. He is quite a clumsy little boy though. He has already had stitches three different times now. He was only ten months old the first time he attempted to walk and fell face first on the coffee table, hitting his eyebrow and needing three stitches. The second time was when he was two and riding a tricycle at daycare and the third time when he was learning to ride his bike with no training wheels. I think it is safe to say that a career in BMX is not such a great idea.
“Yes! I found him!” he said jumping up from the floor and hugging Barney, who he has had since he was six months old.
“Good job baby! Let’s get downstairs. Daddy is waiting for you,” I said as I high fived him on his detective skills.
“Bye Charlie,” Logan said as he walked by her finishing her Cocoa Clusters. The boys started calling her Charlie when she was a baby and it kind of stuck for all of us.
“Bye,” she replied, not even looking up from her tablet. She begged and begged for me to download the new princess coloring app so she was in another world.
I walked out to the garage to wave to the boys like I try to do every day if I am not working. I am a nurse at the only hospital in our town. My shift is three days a week for twelve hours a day or more, like last night, so I have extra time to see my family. We live in a small town about a hundred miles outside of Las Vegas. I used to be a nurse in Philadelphia when I met Shane one day when he came in to the emergency room after a car accident. At the time we met, Shane was a lawyer in Pittsburgh and when an opening came up for a lawyer in Detroit, he asked me to join him and I couldn’t say no. We lived in Detroit for about two years before getting transferred to Las Vegas. Shane was the nicest guy I had ever met. He is 6’2, although he likes to say he is 6’3 because apparently that is way taller than 6’2. He has bright blue eyes and wavy dark, brown hair that he always runs his hands through when he gets nervous.
I got to the garage as they were backing out. I could see Logan in the back seat blowing me kisses. Shane waved and smiled while maneuvering his mirrors. He is a very attentive driver, which gets really annoying. Garrett was sitting in the front seat looking down at his Ipod and still wearing his hoodie. He never even looked up. As much as I try to pretend it doesn’t bother me, it breaks my heart. I know what Shane says is right and I need to give him his space, but he is my baby and I miss that. He used to sleep in the middle of Shane and me in our bed until he went to Kindergarten. He would have terrible nightmares since he was two years old and the only thing that would calm him down was singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star into his ear while rocking him to sleep in my arms. So when he walks past me in my own house and acts like I am a stranger, it is devastating.
When the boys were out of sight, I started to close the garage door and noticed a moving truck parked in the driveway across the street. The Baker’s lived there for ten years before retiring and moving to Arizona. The weather helps Mrs. Baker’s arthritis tremendously, according to their postcards. I went inside and peeked out the kitchen window which faces the front of our house. There was nobody outside so I would have to stalk them a bit later.
“Mom, this app is already boring me,” Charlie said as she walked to the fridge for a juice box. “Can we check for more later?” she asked.
“Of course bunny,” I smiled to her and kissed the top of her head. I have called her bunny since we brought her home in white bunny pajamas complete with a little hoodie with bunny ears. Charlotte is only three years old and definitely a little genius. One night a few months ago, I was laying with her in bed reading a bed time story and she started reading the book. I thought at first it was that she memorized the book, since it was her favorite, so I grabbed another book she never read and she read it perfectl
y. We try to treat her the same as any other three year-old, but that can be difficult. She is enrolled in a half day of kindergarten a few days a week and is begging to take a karate class like Logan’s.
Today was one of my off days at work so I planned on dropping Charlie off at her Kindergarten class for the morning session and then meet my best friend Susan for some more coffee and hopefully a mani/pedi, if time allowed. I decided on wearing my favorite yoga pants and Yo MTV raps t-shirt for our excursion. While I was getting dressed, I saw the new neighbors out my bedroom window. It appeared the husband was a young man in his early thirties, tall and huskie with dirty blonde hair. His wife was walking behind him and she was petite, late twenties, with long red hair and appeared to be seven to eight months pregnant. I am pretty good at gauging moms to be on their due dates, which drives Shane crazy, especially in the middle of Target when I approach a complete stranger. I threw my long brown, wavy hair into a messy bun with a headband, brushed my teeth and put on some lip balm. It was going to be a sunny, warm day so I opted for no makeup so I could get some sun on my face. I ran down the stairs where Charlie was standing with her princess backpack and tablet in hand.
“Seriously, how long does it take for you to get ready?” she asked as she turned around, walking to the garage door.
“Touché,” I replied, nudging her ahead of me out the back door. We climbed in to my Prius and backed out of the garage, but not before Charlie put her Phil Collins CD into the player. Yup, another one of her quirks. The new neighbors were getting things out of the back of their moving truck when I pulled up to the end of their driveway.
“Good Morning,” I said to them waving out the window.
They both turned around, “Hello,” the young woman said and quietly turned back around.
The man looked at her and then at me, “Good morning. You must be our neighbors,” he said very politely.
“We sure are. I’m Carly and this is my daughter Charlie,” I said to him as Charlie rolled down her back seat window.
“Pleasure to make your acquaintance sir,” she said.
I took a deep breath and nervously laughed to myself. The last thing we need is the new neighbors thinking we are a bunch a weirdos.
“Where are y’all from?” I asked him with my Texas accent slipping in there like it does from time to time. I graduated nursing school in Dallas so I still throw in that accent unexpectedly.
“We moved here from Nebraska,” the young man said as the young woman starting walking toward the front door of the house. The man must have seen me notice because he said, “Please, don’t mind my wife, she is very hormonal these days,” he laughed. “I am Ben and that is my wife Hope”.
“It is very nice to meet you Ben,” I replied, feeling a bit awkward, “if you need anything, please let us know, we are right across the street in 1409,” I smiled to Ben.
“I sure will Carly. Nice to meet you ladies” Ben said as he waved and started walking back to the house also. He went inside the front door as I pulled away.
“They were kinda weird,” Charlie said from the back seat.
“Charlie, we don’t say that about people,” I scolded her, as I was actually thinking the same exact thing.
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“Maybe they are Mormons?” Susan said to me as she sipped a glass of wine while we were getting our pedicures.
“Susan!” I yelled back at her. “It wasn’t that, something was just really odd to me,” I said to her, still thinking about our new neighbors.
Susan and I are both nurses at the hospital on the same shift so we always try to plan these special days just for ourselves as much as we can.
“Maybe they are aliens like in that Tom Hanks movie,” Susan said as she downed the last drop of her wine.
“No more wine for her,” I whispered to the pedicurist as she attempted to stand up to refill her glass.
“I think I am going to see if Shane wants to go over there and officially introduce ourselves, you know like a welcome to the neighborhood?” I told Susan, somewhat worried about her response.
“Yeah, I think that is actually a good idea. You can see what kind of weird shenanigans are going on inside the house,” she replied, still trying to get the last drops of wine from the bottom of her glass.
We finished our mani/pedis and stopped at a few boutiques along the walk way before heading home. Susan has twin daughters that are sixteen years old and on the cheerleading squad. They were having some end of the year presentation for the parents so she had to rush off. It was a good thing she stopped drinking the wine for sure. I peeked at my watch and still had time to get home and do some yoga on the Netflix before I had to pick up Charlie. I pulled up to my house and there was a big golden retriever doing his business in my front yard.
“Scoot! Go away!” I yelled at him while swinging my purse in the air.
“Buster! Get back here,” I heard a woman’s voice coming from across the street. I turned around and it was my new neighbor Hope.
“I am so sorry about that,” she said as she walked across the street while hitting her leg to get the dog’s attention.
“He is so confused since we got here,” she smiled at me while barely making eye contact.
“Oh gosh, don’t worry about it,” I politely told her, as a whiff of Buster’s newest creation wafted into my nose.
Hope stood in front of me with a blue and green flowery dress on and her beautiful red hair blowing in the wind. She was much prettier closer up. When she smiled, she had crooked lower teeth and a small scar on her lip.
“It is so nice to have you in the neighborhood Hope,” I told her as I reached down to pet Buster.
“No! Don’t do that. Please,” she snapped and pulled Buster back.
“He is very vicious,” she said as she started to hurry away with Buster back to her house.
“Umm, OK bye,” I muttered under my breath as she walked away. I went inside and started my yoga. I was just getting into my Crescent Moon pose when my phone alarm went off to pick up Charlie.
Those Who Trespass Against Us Page 1
