Who could it be?  Cindy's parents had only met one person in town and that was Steve from Target.  Did he know where they lived?  Or was it the neighbor that didn't exist?  Did the neighbor that didn't exist spot Cindy's excessive peaking out the window? 

Cindy waited upstairs, she was allowed to open the door if someone came over, but she didn't want to do it this time.  She pretended like she didn't hear it.  She paced her bedroom waiting for a conversation to start downstairs.  Her heart was pounding a million miles a minutes.  Back and forth she walked, then she stopped immediately.  Who was the one pacing now?  At least she wasn't holding a bat on her shoulder.  

She popped a squat on the top step and strained her ears to hear.  All she could hear was muffled noises, these old walls must be more sound proof than she thought.  She propped her elbows on her knees and started tapping her fingers together.  Is this was anxiety felt like?  Wasn't she took young to have stress?  She was waiting for a safe time to go downstairs.  Or was someone going to come and get her to tell her to stop peaking at the neighbors?

She heard some pounding noises coming from downstairs and Cindy got worried.  What was happening?  Then Cindy heard laughing.  She heard three people laughing.  Laughing, which means whoever was here, her parents were happy about it.  Cindy started to tip toe down the stairs.  As she got farther down, the voices got louder, and the laughter got stronger.  She got to the bottom of the stairs, took a deep breath, and opened the door.  She peaked out around the corner and let out the breath that she had been holding this entire time.

She saw the shiny mechanical hand on the man standing down the hall.  It was Steve.

"Hey Cindy.  Do you remember Steve from Target?  I invited him over for dinner,"  Ray said to Cindy as he saw her at the other end of the hall. 

"Hi Steve.  I didn't hear your car pull up," Cindy said as she headed into the kitchen.  She now realized that the pounding sound was from opening and closing the cabinet doors.

"I don't own a car," said Steve.  "I normally walk around town if I have to.  I am not really working at the moment so I can't afford a car.  Besides, it helps me keep in shape."

"That makes sense,"  Cindy said looking at his almost too skinny frame.

"Maybe you and Cindy can take a walk sometime.  She loves to walk," Rose told Steve, rubbing her belly.

Cindy looked at her mom in surprise.  Since when does she trust someone that she has just met?  If it was any consolation, Steve did look like a trustworthy guy.  He looked like one of those cute innocent grandpas that took their grandkids fishing every weekend and fed them chocolate behind their parent's backs.  His laugh sounded like Santa Clause, if he existed.  They way he talked was quiet and smooth.  He did have a southern accent, but it somehow made him sound more intelligent.

"I would love to!  What do you say Cindy?"  Steve looked at Cindy with his soft eyes.

"I don't see why not.  We are new here, so a little town tour sounds like a good plan."  Cindy smiled back at Steve.  She already felt awkward thinking about it.  What if they had nothing to talk about while they were walking?

"Great!  I am going to start dinner, Steve be back in about a half hour.  How does that sound?"  Rose's face lit up with joy.

"Northfield is a pretty big town," Steve said as he looked at his watch.  "But, you've got to start somewhere right?"

Steve and Cindy's parents laughed together.  Adults seemed to laugh at the strangest jokes.

****************

Cindy and Steve left the house on foot and headed to the sidewalk.  All of the clouds had cleared and the sidewalks were mostly dry.  It turned out to be a pretty nice day.  How was Cindy suppose to sneak to the neighbor's house now?  She couldn't be rude and leave the company her parents had invited over. 

"So," Cindy started. "How long have you lived in Northfield?"  She thought this walk would be less awkward if they talked.  She didn't want the 'awkward silence' that she's heard other people talking about.

"I have been here my whole life.  Born and raised."  Steve looked up at the sun when he talked.  He said he walked everywhere, but it seemed like he didn't get to enjoy the sun much. "How is Montana?  I've never been there.  Is it as moutainous as they say?  Have you seen a grizzly bear?

With his last question, Cindy chuckled.  He sounded so excited like a kid wondering about aliens.  She has seen grizzly bears.  They lived in the woods in Montana so she saw them all the time in the dark of night.  She told him how her and her family lived in a wooded area in between some mountain ranges.  They had neighbors, but they were so far away that they were unable to see them with the naked eye.  Moving to the suburbs in Northfield was a complete change to what Cindy was used to.  Yes, they were surrounded by trees here, but the houses were still pretty close together.  The only neighbor she cared about was the one that didn't exist.  Plus, she was walking on an actual sidewalk and not an endless dirt road.

Steve seemed really interested in Cindy's stories.  Was he just being nice or did he just not get out much?  Just because a person is older, doesn't mean they've seen more in their life. 

"What about you Steve?  What's it like to live in the suburbs?  I've never lived somewhere where I can walk to the store."

"That's the best thing about Northfield," Steve said.  "You can walk anywhere at any time.  There are sidewalks everywhere and you don't have to worry about not finding a place open.  Lots of 24/7 outlets."

"Do you know anything about the house behind mine?"  Cindy thought maybe a local would know more about the house than her parents.  Maybe Steve knew about the strange sightings that she had been seeing.

"Not much.  Just what they said on the news.  It's abandoned now.  No one has been inside it for almost thirty years now."  Steve looked sad as he told Cindy what he knew.  "But it was so long ago.  I think they should just tear that house down.  It's just sitting there taking up space."

At that, Cindy didn't want to tell him that she saw someone in the house.  She liked Steve, but she didn't want him to think that she was seeing ghosts. 

"We should probably start heading back now," Steve said as he looked at his watch.

They didn't get very far, but they only had so much time.  They only got to the edge of the street.  Cindy did see a Menard's up ahead, but she wasn't interested in a hardware store anyways.  She was only interested in one building in this town.

On the way back they were mostly silent.  Steve asked Cindy if she was excited to start a new school, but she just shrugged.  Cindy asked Steve about his hobbies.  He liked to cook, which explained the knife block that he purchased, but doesn't explain why he's so skinny. 

They walked up to Cindy's house.  Seeing it from the outside again, Cindy was kind of disgusted.  Her house looked like one of those haunted houses from a horror movie.  She knew they were going to fix up the inside, but what about the outside?  What if she made friends at school and they never wanted to come over because of the way her house looked?  She was going to suggested to her parents to at least give it a paint job.

They were almost to the front door, trees and leaves crunching beneath thier feet.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Steve said as he walked ahead of Cindy.  "I enjoyed our walk Cindy.  I hope we can become great friends some day."  He walked inside while smiling at Cindy.  Cindy smiled back.

Cindy was about to walk in the front door when she all of a sudden heard something rustling in the trees.  She looked over, hoping it was the wind.  None of the other trees were moving, there was no breeze today. 

She walked off of the front step and slowly tip toed towards the moving tree. She didn't want whatever was in the trees to know she was there. She was getting nervous, maybe her house was haunted after all. 

The trees kept rustling.  It looked like whatever was in there was moving to the right, away from the house.  She got up to the tree line and stuck her hand out to move the branches out of the way.  The trees rustled some more and out popped a field mouse.  Cindy jumped, not out of fear, but because she didn't want the mouse to get squished under her shoes.  How can a tiny little mouse cause the leaves to move so much?

At that thought, out popped Gus.  He was chasing the mouse.  Cindy watched her tabby cat run off to the other side of the yard. 

"Cindy, what are you still doing out here?"  Ray came out of the front door.

"Gus got out.  I should probably go and get him."

"OK, try to hurry up.  Dinner is almost ready."  Ray went back inside and Cindy followed Gus into the trees. 

She didn't get a chance to see which way he went.  She would just have to find him the old fashion way.

"Gus, here kitty kitty," Cindy said while she walked to the side of the house.  Her dad was doing a lot of yard work, but it seemed like he hadn't gotten to the side of the house yet.  The grass was still pretty long, but at least he mowed a path for someone to get through.  Someone like a nine year old looking for the runaway family cat. 

"Gus!  Come out, come out, wherever you are,"  Cindy sang to her cat.  Then she scoffed, "Where are you Gus?"

Cindy kept walking along the side of the house.  You would think finding an orange tabby cat in the middle of green grass would be easier than this. 

Cindy was getting frustrated.  Where could Gus have gone?  She hoped that he didn't actually run away.

Cindy got to the backyard.  She didn't realize until now that she had never been in the backyard before.  She looked up at the house and saw her bedroom window.  She looked down across the lawn and saw the fence.  She walked up to it, forgetting about Gus.  The wood panels looked so close together that she couldn't see in between them.  Some of the wood was rotting, but Cindy ran her hand over it anyways.  The fence was rough in places, but she was careful not to get a splinter. 

Cindy spotted a hole in the fence a few feet down.  She walked over so she could peek inside.  She'd never been this close before.  She snuck over in case someone was on the other side.  She was right at the hole and was about to peek into it.  She had to stand on her tip toes to see through.  She was almost able to reach it when suddenly she heard a hissing sound behind her.  Her feet became flat on the ground and she turned around to see Gus, sitting in the middle of the yard hissing.  He couldn't possibly be hissing at her.  They were best friends. She took a step towards him and Gus took off running again.

"Gus!" Cindy was about to run after him when she heard something behind the fence.  She tip toed back over so she wouldn't be heard.  She heard two different voices.  Cindy thought there was only one person over there.  She got to the fence and placed her hands on the fence.  She turned her head and put her ear on the fence.

"We can't have people living in that house.  They can't find out about us," Cindy heard a woman hiss.

"We will just have to get rid of them then,"  said a man.