24
“You can drop the act, Eddie. I know you were there last night—you’re one of the assholes who tore it down!”
“No way Jose. Don’t know nothin’ ‘bout it.” Now he was openly smirking.
I pointed to the cast on his left forearm. “Eddie—I saw you. I saw your cast as you jumped over our flowers getting back into your apartment.”
Then he dropped his pretense. “Yeah, you prick, and you sent your old lady down, too. Why didn’t you come down?”
We glared at each other, but after a few seconds he turned abruptly and strode away.
“Fuck you,” he said as he went, “and your fucking garages.”
After the dustup with Eddie, I became resolute about leaving the fence where it lay. I told myself eventually one of them would feel bad about what had happened and clean it up. I know—wishful thinking. But I had to stand my ground, what little was left. Although it had been her idea to begin with, Megan was over it. She came and went from the garages and alley anyway, so she could ignore the whole scene. Also she pointed out we had achieved our goal.
The neighbors no longer were using our yard. “If it works, why fix it,” she chirped. “Que será, será.”
Later that day, soon after Megan left to do some shopping, there was a quiet knock on the door. It was Roxie. I almost didn’t recognize her: no makeup, hair pulled back into a long ponytail, turquoise tube top, white hip huggers. The stretchy top made her look almost flat.
“Sorry to bother you,” she said, “but can we talk a minute?”
She pointed with her chin slightly, to indicate she wanted to come inside.
“Of course,” I said. I opened the door wider and let her in. As she passed I smelled a blend of Herbal Essence shampoo and cigarette smoke. It didn’t feel like a social call so we stood just inside the closed front door. Except for the exposed midriff, she looked like she could be one of my students.
“I need to ask a favor” she said, watching me closely.
“I’m not sure what you mean.” Eddie had wanted a favor too but Roxie certainly was more direct about it.
“I saw the police here last night when I came home from work. You were talking to them out front. After they left I went inside and Eddie was freaking about your fence getting smashed. He said you think he did it.”
“I know he did it,” I said. “There may have been others, but I saw him running around in our yard last night when it happened. And we had a little chat about it this morning in the alley. He all but admitted it.”
“Did you turn him in, or say where he lives?” She kept her eyes fastened