There are few houses on Cook Road, but the two at Numbers 23 and 25 are unusually close to each other and oddly situated. Relations between neighbors at these two homes have varied depending on the occupants. The shared boundary tests the better natures of those who dwell on either side.
A fence might seem to be in order. But a wall of any design along the dovetailed property line would be a mutually detrimental eyesore to both owners, and has thus been avoided.
Sarah and Jerry’s dog Rusty at Number 23 is a former farmyard mongrel adopted out of sympathy for its plight, and relentless requests by eight-year-old Bekka. Rusty routinely loitered by the back door, awaiting a breach in security by the normally vigilant family. The shaggy little opportunist was an escape artist who seemed to love being chased.
In remote or less populated areas, sewage is often disposed of by septic systems that must be regularly pumped out. One late April day several years earlier, the septic tank cover was removed for pumping at Number 25 and remained open while the tanker truck went to unload its contents. The back yard was perfumed with the yearly crop of blue perennials that only partially masked the stench emanating from the open system.
This was one of the days Rusty got away from Jerry. Not an athletic man, he nevertheless took off like Hermes after the bounding dog. Around the side of the house they ran, leaping the flowering blue boundary without regard for a minor trespass. Relations had been good since Susan and Frank had moved in. In fact, Susan was outside, her face toward the sun until a somewhat surreal event turned her attention.
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