The Halloween After That Strange Guy Moved in Across the Street
The Kind of Memory You Can’t Help But Take to the Grave
When my daughter was just a little ghoul, everyone did the same things at Halloween. Classic small town. Jack o’lantern in the front window or porch.
Maybe a couple of paper bats in the window.
At least, until the Halloween after that strange guy moved in across the street.
Honestly, I don’t even remember what his wife looked like. No kids. Just the two of them. Quiet. Kind of kept to themselves. They’d wave, smile, call out hi, but that’s about it.
This guy, he had a face like someone grabbed Owen Wilson’s facial features with that crazy nose and smacked them onto Daniel Craig’s face. Ridiculously muscular arms and wide shoulders on a body that was real wiry.
To top it off, this guy had crazy long legs and the boniest knees I ever seen.
You’d see him loping across the yard and I couldn’t help but think of Ichabod Crane. I’d watch him and think man, that guy is pasted together weird.
Anyway, one day I’m vacuuming the front room and I see him through the window. He’s slicing a rectangle in the front lawn with a square shovel. Then he carefully slices under and rolls up…
