Those Crazy Katz' of Windsong Lane: Chapter 24

Chapter 24: New Neighbors

It was July when Ellie came into the house and said that someone was moving into Justin’s old place. Jack and Sarah went out with her to the lane to peek surreptitiously around the corner. There was a large moving truck in the driveway and men moving furniture into the house.  Each of the kids was secretly hoping that it would be a family and that that family would have kids their age. Jack pointed when he saw a tricycle come out of the truck and the three of them hi-fived each other. There were kids there, and even if they were small, they would be happy to have some other kids around.

In spare moments that week the kids took to riding their bikes up and down the lane. A few days after the moving truck, Jack saw two boys outside with jump ropes. One of the boys saw him and waved, so he rode up the drive. “Hi. I’m Jack.” He said.

The older boy said, “Do you live here?”

“We live just down the lane a bit.” Jack said. “We saw you move in.”

There was a moment of silence. “Well, bye!” Jack said, and left. He was feeling inexplicably a little shy, but he did go home and tell his sisters what he had seen. Karen overheard this and decided to do something neighborly. In the quiet hour while Emma was napping she made a cake to bring over to the neighbors that evening. Of course, Ellie and Sarah and Jack all wanted to go, so she ended up bringing all of the kids with her.

The woman that answered the door was dark haired and well dressed. A little taken aback by all of the kids on her front porch, she thanked them and invited them in. Karen, having seen the initial reaction, declined, saying she didn’t want to inundate her with all of these kids while they were moving in. They all introduced themselves, and the woman said that her name was Rhea and her two boys were Nicolas, age eleven, and William age eight. There was also a little girl named Lilly who was five. Jack was really happy there was a boy near his age, and it seemed like Lilly and Joe could play. Ellie was a little sad that William was a William and not a Wilamina. Why were all the kids her age around here boys? Karen invited them to come over any time.

Over the next few weeks, they got to know each other a little bit better. It wasn’t all happy and easy though, because William and Nicolas were not very physical, didn’t know how to climb trees, and weren’t allowed to get very dirty. The Katz kids were frequently outside shoeless and in old shorts and t-shirts, while these kids always had nice clothes on and were not allowed to take their shoes off. They might have shorts, but they were always nice shorts.

The boys didn’t know how to play a lot of the games the Katz’s knew or didn’t want to do the things that they suggested, so there was a great deal of negotiating and frustration sometimes. Poor little Lilly wasn’t allowed to go down the lane yet, so Karen would sometimes bring Joe over, but she didn’t really have time to sit and chat all day, so it didn’t happen as much as Joe would have liked.

Also, the kids were in school all week and it became somewhat apparent that Rhea didn’t entirely approve of the Katz’s. The differences were apparent in their family styles, and knowing that the Katz kids didn’t go to school made them even more unsavory, it seemed. It wasn’t anything obvious, but in small things the boys would say and the way Rhea would react to things, Karen started to get the idea that there was a great deal of disapproval. Only once did any of the family go into the house, and that was when Jack was over and asked if he could use the bathroom. The large crucifix in the entryway was hard to miss. He quietly told his mom about seeing that that night when she came to tuck him in (She still did this with all of her kids no matter how old they were. It was a chance to check in and catch up on the day’s events and how each kid was feeling.). Karen shrugged to herself and privately thought that the two families were as miss-matched as two families could be.

It was amazing that they got along at all and it was probably really lucky that they didn’t live directly next to each other. The Katz house was always busy, frequently loud, and almost always messy. Rhea’s husband worked at the bank and they had moved from the other side of town. They owned no pets and Rhea seemed to keep her home spotless. The Katz house had animals inside and out and enough kids to keep the commotion constant. Karen couldn’t understand why this family had chosen to move into an old farmhouse in the middle of a field. Maybe they had gotten an exceptionally good price on it.

Ellie’s preoccupation with bugs had made for some sticky situations as well. One weekend, William and Nicholas came over. They were bored and had come over hoping for something to do. There was little in their own yard of interest, and even though they knew that their mom didn’t really approve, they were somewhat fascinated with all of the stuff going on at the Katz house. Every time they came over there would be something new and interesting going on. One day they came over and the Katz’s were putting on a play reenacting the Barbarians overrunning Rome. Another day, they came over and the kids were exploding a baking soda and vinegar volcano. Today, they found Ellie in the front yard with her butterfly net and her sketchbook. Yeller was watching her from the front window. It looked like she had caught something interesting.

William came over and asked her what she had caught. She said it was a tiger beetle and showed it to them. William said, “Wow, that’s neat!” Ellie said he could hold it and put it in his hand. He looked a little afraid but also fascinated. He had wide eyes and quickly asked her to take it back. They sat and watched a little while longer but Ellie didn’t have anything else quite as neat, and watching her draw wasn’t very interesting. Nicholas took off his jacket while they sat there and put it next to the bug bucket. He left it there when they ran off to find Jack. Later that evening he got his jacket back and put it on and he and his brother went home.

When his mom went to wash the jacket that evening, the tiger beetle, having climbed on to the jacket and ridden on Nicholas’ back all the way home, was sitting right on top. Rhea screamed and ran out of the room. She did not like bugs one tiny bit and this one was big and creepy. William came in to see what was wrong and said that that was the bug that Ellie had showed them that afternoon. Rhea was not at all impressed. She asked him to remove it from the house. He picked it up and put it outside. Rhea couldn’t understand why it would be on the jacket unless it was put there intentionally and ever after she was even more suspicious of the Katz kids. Her distrust got bad enough that the boys stopped coming over, especially on weekdays.