House Number Four
Emily screamed with delight as she threw herself into the big pool. Her father had finally allowed her to swim in it with armbands, instead of being confined to the kiddie pool. Admittedly, only for a short time, until the adults arrived. Rob, her father, didn’t want to upset the residents, so he quickly made it clear to his excited daughter that children belonged in the children’s pool, and adults in the adults’ pool.
Vanda, Emily’s six-year-old sister, watched the wild splashing with a pout. The shy, reserved girl disapproved of her sister’s “show.” In her opinion, Emily was always “showing off” whenever she felt people were watching her. Moreover, she had also noticed their neighbor Ted’s hostile behavior. Sometimes, when she was angry with Emily, she would scare her by saying that Ted would come for her at night, put her in a sack, and take her to Lobos Island. From there, she’d only escape if a tourist found her, felt sorry for her, and brought her home. Although, according to Vanda, tourists were much more interested in cute seals than cute children.
Hearing the loud laughter, Pauline, their French mother, appeared at the poolside with a thunderous expression. She stomped her foot angrily.
“For God’s sake, Rob,” she hissed, “that jerk Ted will be here any minute, complaining that he can’t sleep because of us! I told you I don’t want trouble!”
She didn’t even notice her fists clenching.
“All right, calm down,” Rob replied soothingly, speaking French with a distinct American accent. “They’re just splashing around for a few minutes. Then I’ll take them back to the kiddie pool. Even Ted won’t complain about that.”
“Yeah, right,” she muttered, spinning on her heel to glare at the upstairs window of the neighboring house. The peeping window, as they called it, offered a perfect view of the entire courtyard.
It was obvious someone was standing behind the curtain.
“There you go,” Pauline grumbled. “That nutjob is spying on us again.”
“Go ahead, Emily, scream as loud as you can,” Rob teased his daughter, laughing.
“Don’t you dare!” Pauline stomped her foot again in fury.
Too late.
Emily’s blood-curdling scream pierced through every corner of the residential complex like a hundred sharp knives. Upstairs windows flew open immediately, and fifteen startled faces—along with one bloodshot with rage—stared down at the pool.
“Oops,” Pauline said sheepishly, waving in all directions with a tiny curtsy as an apology.
Rob bent over the pool edge, hiding his face so no one could see the tears of laughter streaming down his cheeks.
“You’ll pay for this,” Pauline growled through clenched teeth. She grabbed Vanda’s arm and stormed back into the house with her. “Stupid little twit,” she muttered under her breath, “and now I’ll have to listen to that miserable Ted.”
Pauline was only partially wrong. Their temperamental neighbor sought out Rob instead of her this time. Despite his bad nature, Ted seemed to have a strong sense of justice. Not that he wanted to resolve the issue immediately. No, Ted waited. Early in the afternoon, when the young father was enjoying his well-earned Saturday beer on the terrace, the still-fuming neighbor leaned on the short, barely two-meter-long stone wall separating their terraces.
“Rob,” Ted began in a sepulchral tone.
Rob nearly fell off his chair in shock, looking up in disbelief. It would never have occurred to him to invade his neighbors’ barely-existent personal space like that.
“Ted?”
“Rob.”
“Yes?”
Ted let out a dramatic sigh.
“Rob, Rob, Rob…”
“What do you want?” Rob urged him.
“How do you expect us to get along like this?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean you clearly have no control over your family. Neither those peculiar children of yours nor your wife. You have no idea where this will lead if you keep loosening the reins and spoiling those girls like this.”
“Oh, come on, Ted, you can’t be serious. They’re just kids playing.”
“Playing? This is what you call playing? Animals don’t behave like this. What if someone has a heart attack and dies from fright?”
Rob stood up, and the two men locked eyes.
“Then we’ll bury them and mourn them with dignity, dear neighbor,” the father whispered.
Ted was momentarily at a loss for words. Rob seized the opportunity to walk away, leaving the bewildered, dazed man staring blankly into space.