Chapter 22
The sun rose above the horizon for the start of everybody's Tuesday.
After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, James got inside his Impala, backed down his driveway, made a right turn, and headed down Montvale Street.
Back in the house, Cindy got ready for her job at the dentist office by putting on her uniform.
Way over in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Bernard just finished his breakfast at Momma Anne's Country Diner.
He walked out of the diner, smoking a Camel. He headed to his parked Hudson in the parking lot.
He got in his car, started it up, and drove out of the lot.
Over in the Gibsland Mall, James walked around the lower concourse in his security guards uniform checking things out to make sure it was crime-free – it was.
Cindy was busy at work at the dentist office of Doctor Ira Spangler. She had worked there as an assistant for two years now and loved her job.
Dr. Spangler was ready to fill a lower cavity in the mouth of a middle-aged man named Billy.
Dr. Spangler nodded at Cindy that he was ready to proceed with the filling.
"Open wide Billy," Dr. Spangler said.
Billy looked a little nervous while he opened his mouth as wide as possible. Cindy discreetly handed Dr. Spangler the syringe of novocaine behind Billy's head.
Dr. Spangler took the syringe and jabbed the inside of Billy's mouth with the needle.
Billy's shoes rose off the bottom of the reclined chair while the needle went into his lower gum.
Dr. Spangler continued to shoot novocaine into Billy's mouth while Billy's shoes were still in the air a little from the pain of the syringe.
Billy started to look a little pale from the shot.
Meanwhile, over at the eastern area of Gibsland, Bernard drove his Hudson down Harrison Avenue.
He drove past an International House of Pancakes.
He drove past the Gibsland Mall.
Then he saw Abby's Real Estate office on the right-hand side of the road. He turned his car into the parking lot of her office.
He parked his car and walked over to the entrance.
Abby Stanford was a sixty-two-year-old real estate agent that had opened her business thirty years ago. She worked behind her desk when Bernard entered her office.
She gave her a potential client a warm smile while she stood up.
She walked out from behind her desk. "I'm Abby Stanford, how may I help you?" she said while she walked over to Bernard.
"Bernard Sanders. I'm looking for a house to rent," Bernard replied and walked over and met Abby in the middle of her office.
"A house to rent, okay," Abby replied while she thought about some possible listing in her mind. "I have three at the moment. Please have a seat," she added then motioned for Bernard to sit down at her desk.
Bernard sat down with Abby at her desk, where she started to show him pictures of the three houses available to rent.
Thirty minutes had passed, and Bernard viewed the house to the left of James and Cindy Randall's home. For some unexplained reason, Bernard felt this house was perfect. Abby removed the For Rent sign and placed it in the trunk of her white 1978 Impala.
He then rode back with Abby to her office and signed the necessary rental agreement paperwork. He paid her the first month's rent, and a small security deposit in cash then left her office.
Over at the Gibsland Mall, James sat on a bench in the upper concourse. He looked a little bored while he watched the shoppers walk up and down the concourse with shopping bags in hand. He yawned and fought from falling asleep on the bench.
He got up and decided to walk around so he would stay awake.
Over on Montvale Street, Bernard backed his Hudson into the garage of his new home.
He got out of his car.
While he closed his garage door, he did not notice Agnes while she spied on him from behind the curtains of her living room window.
Inside his garage, he walked over to the trunk and opened it. He reached inside and unloaded his two suitcases next to the two groceries bags. He walked over, with the two suitcases to the door in the garage that went into the kitchen.
He went inside the house.
An hour later, Bernard drove his Hudson out of his garage and headed back down Montvale Street.
He turned down another street and into Gibsland for another essential errand.
Fifteen minutes later, Bernard gassed up his Hudson at a Gulf gas station on Broadmoor Avenue.
He then drove over to the glass telephone booth near the entrance to the gas pumps and made another phone call. This time the caller was at home.
"Hello," answered sixty-six-year-old Wendy Henderson from Van Nuys, California.
"Wendy, it's me, Bernard. I called last night, but you were not at home," he replied, glad she was at home.
"I went out to see that new Peter Falk movie, The Cheap Detective," she replied from the phone.
"How was it?"
"Not bad. So, how are you feeling?"
"I'm having my good and bad moments," Bernard replied, then covered the end of the phone and coughed a little.
"What did the doctor say?" she asked while he coughed.
"One doc said maybe four to five months. While another doc said maybe six to nine months. Who fucking knows? I think they're all a bunch of quacks."
"Where are you? Still in Cincinnati?"
"No, I just arrived in Gibsland, Illinois today. I'm renting a house."
"I remember that place. Why leave Cincinnati and move there?" she asked and sounded concerned.
"That town was getting a little too risky. Besides, I still have something to pickup here in Gibsland. Something that will help out us during the next year. Plus there's something else I wanted to do."
"What's that?" Wendy replied and sounded, really curious.
"I figured we could take one last trip down memory lane. So, I hope you're up for it."
There were a few seconds of silence from the phone while Wendy thought about his proposal. "Yeah, why not. Life has been so fucking boring for the past forty-four years. It might be a blast. And besides, I hate being a cleaning maid for these arrogant movie stars here in Hollywood. That actor Dan Dakota is always trying to feel my ass. Prick," she said.
"I've always liked your ass."
"I remember," she replied with a light chuckle.
"When can you come to Gibsland?"
"I can't head over that way in a few days. I'll need some time to tie up a few loose ends," she said.
"That sounds good. I'll call later, and we can talk about you heading east," he replied with a little smile happy that Wendy would be joining him.
"I'll be waiting. Take care," Wendy replied, then hung up her end of the call.
Bernard hung up the phone and walked over to his Hudson with a spring in his step.
He got in his car and drove off down Broadmoor with another mission to complete.
A little while later, Bernard pulled his Hudson into the parking lot of the Bell Telephone Company office located off Avondale Avenue.
He parked his car, got out, and headed to the front entrance. He decided that having a phone would come in handy.
Over at the Gibsland Mall, James walked out of one of the many entrances.
He headed to his parked Impala and was glad his shift was finally over.
Back at the James home, Cindy got out of her dental assistant uniform and took a shower. This was her regular routine, as she wanted to make sure she was clean after dealing with people's blood and saliva all day.
A little time had passed, and James drove his Impala down Montvale Street.
The song Running With The Devil by Van Halen played on the radio.
"Running with the devil," James sang out of key but thought he sounded like a rock star.
He pulled his Impala into his driveway and parked next to Cindy's while he hummed to the Van Halen song.
He turned off his car and got out.
James looked over at the old Williams house to his left and noticed the "Albert's Furniture Rental" truck was parked along the street.
Backed in the driveway was Bernard's Hudson with the trunk opened.
He watched while two workers carried a sofa down the ramp of the truck then walked it to the opened front door.
While James walked to his front door, he noticed Agnes while she peeked out her living room window and spied on the activity going on across the street.
James shrugged off her spying again while he headed over to his front door.
In the kitchen, Cindy removed a tray of fish sticks dinner from the oven when James entered the room.
"Someone's renting William's house," he said.
"I know," she replied while she placed the fish sticks on top of the oven.
"Have you seen the family?"
"Not yet. I only saw the men moving a bed in from that truck when I came home."
James looked a little curious. "I wonder why they would rent furniture and not have their own?"
"Leave them be, James," she replied while she started placing fish sticks on two plates.
"Don't worry. Agnes across the street will take care of that."
"He's got room to talk," she replied under her breath so James would not hear.
Cindy continued to prepare dinner while James walked out of the kitchen.
After a nice quiet dinner, James and Cindy retired to the living room to watch TV.
The opening credits of the Laverne and Shirley sitcom started on the TV.
James was in deep thought while Cindy's eyes were on the TV.
"I think that we could be good neighbors and go next store and introduce ourselves," he said.
"Now?"
"Yeah. I want to see if our new neighbors need anything."
"Let's do it tomorrow night," she replied while she watched her show.
James stood up off the couch. "I think tonight would be best," he said then walked off to the front door.
Cindy rolled her eyes, got off the couch, and headed after James.
They went out the front door leaving the TV still on.
James and Cindy walked over to Bernard's front door with, of course, Agnes spying on them from her living room window.
James rang Bernard's doorbell.
A few seconds passed, and the front door cracked open. Bernard appeared in slacks and his dress shirt tucked into his pants with a Camel dangling out of his mouth. He saw James and Cindy and showed no emotions - just his usual obstinate stare. "Yeah."
"Hi, we're your neighbors James and Cindy Randall."
"Hi," Bernard replied and got a little suspicious of this friendly couple.
"We're your neighbors and wanted to welcome you to our lovely neighborhood," James said while he moved around a little to check out the inside of his house.
Bernard noticed and looked a little bothered, so he closed the door a little to block James view. "Bernard Sanders," he said then cringed in pain a little and rubbed the bottom of his right jaw.
Cindy noticed. "You okay, Mister Sanders?
"I think I need a tooth pulled."
"I work for a dentist over on Oakhill Avenue. He's Doctor Ira Spangler."
James got a sudden déjà-vu feeling when he looked at Bernard's dark brown eyes. "Have we met before?"
Bernard looked at James. "I don't think so. I just moved into Gibsland this afternoon," Bernard said while he cringed in pain again.
Cindy noticed. "You really need to see Doctor Spangler. Come by tomorrow."
"Can he be trusted?"
"Of course," Cindy replied a little unsure as to why he would ask that type of question.
"Okay. Nice meeting you," Bernard said, then closed the door.
James and Cindy stood and stared at the closed door.
"That's a little rude," James said.
"Maybe his tooth was killing him," Cindy replied.
"Maybe," James replied while he and Cindy walked away and headed back to their house.
Inside his house, Bernard headed to the living room window and had his Colt 45 pistol tucked into the back of his pants behind the belt.
Bernard peeked out the curtains. He coughed a little while he craned his neck to see James and Cindy.
While Cindy and James walked to their front door, James looked curious. "Why does that old man look so familiar?"
Cindy rolled her eyes. "Let's not start this again."
They walked to their front door and went back inside.
Across the street, Agnes left her spot from her living room curtains and quit spying on her neighbors.
Later that night, Cindy was sound asleep under the covers in the bedroom.
James was in his den and typed on his manuscript on his typewriter.
It was now the middle of the night.
Bernard slept under the covers of his rented bed. He tossed and turned while he dreamt.
During Bernard's dream, a bank was crowded with patrons while he entered in a black suit and Fedora hat.
Bernard strutted up to an available female who smiled at him.
"How may I help you?"
Bernard whipped out his Colt 45 from under his holster tucked under his suit jacket. He shoved the barrel in the teller's face. She got scared to death and shook in fear.
"Give me all of your money!"
Bernard handed the teller a cloth bag.
Her hands shook while she dumped bundles of bills into the cloth bag. Her hands trembled while she handed the bag back to him.
Bernard turned around and saw two security guards that inched at him with guns ready. He fired off some bullets. The security guards dropped to the floor dead.
Bernard laughed while he ran to the door firing his Colt 45 into the ceiling.
Patrons dropped to the floor scared to death while plaster dust rained on them.
Bernard ran out of the bank door. He stopped dead in his tracks the second he saw thirty police officers ready with pistols and Thompson sub-machine guns prepared to fire.
The police officers fired their pistols and machine guns.
Bernard's body twitched all over the place while the bullets penetrated him.
Back to reality, Bernard woke up in a panic, and his body twitched. He calmed down and looked around the room a little dazed and confused. He quickly patted his body down for any bloody holes. Then it dawned on him. "Just a dream."
He lay back down in bed, closed his eyes, and was fast asleep snoring.