{"id":3148,"date":"2025-02-10T17:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/?p=3148"},"modified":"2025-02-10T17:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:36:29","slug":"teaser-from-the-people-in-the-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/teaser-from-the-people-in-the-neighborhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaser from The People in the Neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

A teaser from my story in the forthcoming anthology: \ud835\udc37\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc61\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc50\ud835\udc61\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc63\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc60, \ud835\udc46\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc62\ud835\udc61\u210e\ud835\udc60, & \ud835\udc41\ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc60\ud835\udc66 \ud835\udc41\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc54\u210e\ud835\udc4f\ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc5f\ud835\udc60: \ud835\udc37\ud835\udc66\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc5b\ud835\udc54 \ud835\udc53\ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc5f \ud835\udc4e\ud835\udc5b \ud835\udc34\ud835\udc5b\ud835\udc60\ud835\udc64\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc5f!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The People in the Neighborhood<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elle almost dropped the crumpled piece of paper in the trash.<\/p>\n

What impulse stopped her, she had no idea. Curiosity, maybe? \u00a0But then she didn\u2019t know why she\u2019d picked it up in the first place, instead of raking it into the growing mound of debris. She yanked off her gardening gloves, dropped the rake, and smoothed out the wrinkles in the sheet. A stray spring breeze almost snatched it from her hand, but she held tight.<\/p>\n

The penciled lines, written in a shaky hand, might represent some schoolkid\u2019s first attempt at a homework assignment. Elle painstakingly deciphered the spidery printing. Her first reaction\u2014that it was a kid\u2019s prank or joke\u2014drowned in growing unease as she stared at it.<\/p>\n

The note said, \u201cHelp, please! Prisoner in my own house.\u201d It was signed, \u201cAnnie Henderson, 1606\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t recognize the name. The number belonged to the house immediately to the left of her own, and she\u2019d found the note just a foot from the chain-link fence that separated the two properties. She\u2019d bought her house in this pleasant Charlotte suburb three months before, and in that time the only person she\u2019d seen go in or out of the place was the rather surly middle-aged man she assumed owned it. When she\u2019d tried to introduce herself to him, as she tried to say hello to all of her new neighbors, he\u2019d nodded icily, hopped into his battered F-150 pickup, and driven off, leaving her gaping.<\/p>\n

Elle stuffed the note in her pocket. While raking up more debris previous owners had left in the yard, she considered what to do about the note. Would the police even believe her if she took this to them? Would they take it seriously? Should she<\/em> take it seriously?<\/p>\n

Maybe enough to try to check it out, at least. First, she wanted to find out if anyone even knew an Annie Henderson.<\/p>\n

That afternoon, she talked to the people in the house on the other side of hers, but it didn\u2019t help. The family with two small children had moved there a year or so ago. They did vaguely remember an older woman living at 1606 when they first moved in, but they hadn\u2019t seen her in quite a while and never caught her name.<\/p>\n

The couple directly across the street, though, did remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnie, right,\u201d Martha Lambert, the middle-aged wife said. \u201cI\u2019ve wondered what became of her. She\u2019d be in her late seventies, I think. She liked to putter around in the yard, though she never accomplished much. Seemed a bit ditzy, but sweet and friendly. Haven\u2019t seen much of her since her son moved in about six months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNephew,\u201d her husband Sam said. \u201cSaid he was her nephew. She never had any kids. He moved in to help take care of her. Dementia. She was becoming a danger to herself. I feel bad for her, though. He doesn\u2019t seem a very friendly or caring sort. But it\u2019s not our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martha frowned. \u201cCome to think of it, we haven\u2019t seen anything of her in months. But it\u2019s been winter and she\u2019s kind of frail for being outside in the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a quick internal debate, Elle showed them the note she\u2019d found.<\/p>\n

Martha sucked in a sharp breath. \u201cOh, my.\u201d A moment later, she added, \u201cI think this is Annie\u2019s handwriting. She wrote down a recipe for me a while back. Let me get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went to a desk on the other side of the room and extracted a sheath of papers. \u201cHere it is.\u201d She pulled one from the stack and brought it over.<\/p>\n

They all compared the two papers. \u201cIt is Annie\u2019s writing,\u201d Sam said.\u00a0 \u201cStill, if she has dementia, she may not be\u2026all there. In her right mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what if she is?\u201d Elle asked. \u201cOr even if she\u2019s not, but she\u2019s being mistreated?\u201d<\/p>\n

????????<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fifteen amazing authors create this wonderful anthology for mystery lovers!
Back us now on Kickstarter!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A teaser from my story in the forthcoming anthology: \ud835\udc37\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc61\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc50\ud835\udc61\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc63\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc60, \ud835\udc46\ud835\udc59\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc62\ud835\udc61\u210e\ud835\udc60, & \ud835\udc41\ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc60\ud835\udc66 \ud835\udc41\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc54\u210e\ud835\udc4f\ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc5f\ud835\udc60: \ud835\udc37\ud835\udc66\ud835\udc56\ud835\udc5b\ud835\udc54 \ud835\udc53\ud835\udc5c\ud835\udc5f \ud835\udc4e\ud835\udc5b \ud835\udc34\ud835\udc5b\ud835\udc60\ud835\udc64\ud835\udc52\ud835\udc5f! The People in the Neighborhood Elle almost dropped the crumpled piece of paper in the trash. What impulse stopped her, she had …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,402,204],"tags":[421,68,423,424,422,420,419],"class_list":["post-3148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-short-stories","category-writing","tag-421","tag-anthology","tag-kickstarter","tag-short-story","tag-teaser","tag-420","tag-419"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3150,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3148\/revisions\/3150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}