Things have gone very quiet in the garage. Silent. It’s five minutes since a dog stopped barking at the garage door, riled up by the strange noises inside. It’s ten minutes since Caleb led Misha away, a boy who thinks he’s finally taking control with a girl who’s glad to let go of the reins. Those two are heading further into trouble, but there are problems enough here to be dealing with.
Not-man and Not-Father sway slightly on their feet. The fight is over. Both bear marks. Torn shirts, scratches, bruises.
Three knocks at the front door, followed by the bing-bong of the bell. A momentary pause, then repeat: three knocks, bing-bong. A muffled ‘Hello?’
Not-man shambles, making his way from the garage, stumbling into the kitchen. Not-Father staggers after him, misses the first step as if he didn’t know it was there. Both of them conduct a very small circuit of the kitchen, trying to work out where they’re meant to be. The neighbour’s muffled voice pipes up again. ‘Hello? Jeff? Everything alright in there? Margaret says she heard something going on, wanted me to check in on you. Would’ve been over sooner, but… You in there, Jeff?’
Three knocks, bing-bong.
Not-man gets his bearings, speeds up, targeting the front door. Gets there in time to hear the neighbour huff and turn away. Not-man looks the door up and down, unsure why it’s still in his way. Not-Father bumps him to one side and grapples with the handle.
A shoulder heaves Not-Father out of the way and Not-man bundles his way outside. Stands on the front step. Swivels, searching. To the left. The neighbour, heading back into his home, huffing and grumbling and not noticing that someone’s come out of Jeff’s house and is watching. Back indoors goes the neighbour.
Not-man drops down off the doorstep, shambles across the drive and then the lawn. Not-Father is about to follow.
‘Hey there!’ A voice behind him. It’s the neighbour from the other side, a middle-aged man whose eyes are always screwed up despite wearing glasses. Not-Father faces him. ‘You got a minute?’ He’s standing with hands on hips, like he doesn’t really have a minute spare himself and this needs to be dealt with quickly. Not-Father starts shuffling over. ‘It’s about that kid of yours. Not that it’s any of my business, it’s just that he’s been seen out all night, sleeping on the garage roof.’ It’s a short lawn, and Not-Father pauses at the edge, unsure of what he was intending to do. ‘I’m not one for butting in, I’m sure you know I keep myself to myself, but it’s an odd thing, isn’t it?’ Not-Father does a wobbly about-turn to see what Not-man is up to. He’s rapping on the first neighbour’s front door. Three knocks, then looking for a bell to do the bing-bong. Glasses continues bleating on. ‘It’s probably not for me to say, but the way things are this day and age it’s not all that wise for children to be sleeping out of doors where any kind of funny character might find them.’ Not-Father hears the words, but none of them mean anything to him. He watches as Not-man’s knocking is answered by the huffing, balding neighbour, and then Not-man presses forwards into the house, grabbing two handfuls of the man’s face. ‘Hey, sorry, are you…are you listening? I’m in the middle of telling you something here.’ When he turns back to Glasses it takes a moment to steady himself. ‘Why are you looking at me like that? I’m just trying to do you a favour.’ Not-Father walks at Glasses, forcing him to back-peddle. ‘Hey! Back off, pal!’ Not-Father keeps going, forcing Glasses to retreat towards his house. ‘You lay one single finger on me and I’m calling the police, I mean it!’ He swings the door, meaning to slam it in his assailant’s face. Not-Father raises an arm. Wood bashes against bone. If there’s a blast of white pain, if there’s a flash of numbness, Not-Father doesn’t show that he feels it. He pushes on in, and Glasses turns to run farther into the house. Not-Father lashes out, a wild, unfocused arm-swing, and a flat hand slaps Glasses hard on the ear, destroying his hearing on that side. Glasses drops to the floor wailing as Not-Father kicks the door shut.
The screaming doesn’t last long.