The Smiths moved in June 6, of 1999.The first day, my mother told me to go welcome them to the neighbourhood, so I did.A tall woman answered the door, she was barefoot.
"What," she demanded.
"My mom said to come say hello."
"Well now ya have.Bye," I studied her closely.She had blond hair that went to her waist, and a red dress that had flowers on it.
She spoke up,"Do you need directions back to your house or somethin'?"
"Well I thought...." I trailed off. I was only nine at the time so I didn't understand why Red Dress would be so mean to a kid.
"Uh, sorry. I'm just really tired, didn't mean to take it out on ya kid."
Then, I simply turned and walked to the white pickup in their driveway. I peered over the edge of the truck as i pulled down the tailgate. I don't know what I was doing but I climed into the back and got one of the lighter boxes and jumped down with it. I walked up to Red Dress and mumbled excuse me, then she moved out of the doorway as I walked past her into the house. There were boxes placed all willy nilly around the living room, like when you're reorganizing something and you have to make it dirty before you make it clean.
"Who are you?" The voice came from what I suspected was the kitchen. Sure enough, there was a woman standing in the doorway,or maybe it was the same woman. No, it wasn't the same woman, this one had a blue dress on that was identical to the red one. And she had the same hair,but brown. Red Dress came in carrying a slightly bigger box that said ''bathroom" on it. I sat my box down on the floor, out of the way.
"I'm Sliter," I said, holding out a hand to Blue Dress. Red Dress had disappeared into the house, but I heard shuffling so she was probably unpacking her box.
"Your mama named you that?"
"No, my real name is awful."
"Well, okay then, Awful. What is it though?"
"It's," I pretended to shiver,"Sally."
Red Dress came back in singing some old Beatles song, I think it was Revolution. She stopped halfway out the door and looked back at the two of us.
"Hello Sliter, I'm Roxane."
Then Blue Dress went around me to grab a box from the corner of the room,"And I'm Ramona."
*****
I went back to my house in about half an hour after we had unloaded all of the boxes. Only my brother, Jackson, was home. My mom let him stay home by himself because he was sixteen, but I think I was more mature than he was sometimes. He was lying on the couch watching Friends reruns, so I went straight up to my bedroom. When I got up the stairs I just stood in my doorway and looked around my room, there was nothing to do but look. We- my older sister Kaitlin and I -were painting my walls. They were gonna be blue with white stripes, no one said we could but earlier she came into my room and started carrying things out and laying down newspapers. She was only fourteen so she still did stuff with me, unlike Jackson who only wanted to talk about his "friends." I say it like that because they never really talk to him except at school. At least, we think they talk to him at school.
I walked back downstairs and went outside into the backyard. It was hot. Well, we lived in Los Angeles, what did I expect? I watched the neighbours baby, Wilks, splash around in an old farmhouse sink they had attached to the back of their house. I would have walked to the beach since we literally lived 50 steps from it- I've counted -but the thought of putting on my bathing suit was just...bleh.
*****
The next day,Wednesday, I went back over to Ramona and Roxane's house and knocked on the door. Ramona answered the door, she was wearing pink shredded shorts and an Iron Maidan tank top. Neither of them could have been over twenty-three years old, I wondered how they had paid for the house. It was nice.
"Hey. You wanna do something for me?"
"Sure."
"Okay. Go put this on the mailbox as straight as you can get it."
She handed me a large sticker that said "Smith" on it, I guessed this was their last name. We had an identical one on our mailbox that said "Hill." So I walked down the driveway and put it and the mailbox as straight as I could get it. Then, I felt something rub against my legs, it was a dog. I think it was a Collie. I glanced around, but didn't see anyone. The dog had a collar on and just as I was bending down to look at it, Roxane came out of the house, leaving the door open behind her.
"Sorry, but who gave you permission to pet our dog?"She said in a fake British accent.
"Ronald McDonald,"I said sarcastically,then added,"is this your dog?"
"Nah, it's my boyfriend's." Just then, a man, about Roxane and Ramona's age, came strutting out of the house and down the steps. He had on star shaped sunglasses, a white fedora, and a pink feather boa. He looked around the yard then waved crazily at Roxane. She covered her face with one hand, she was shaking with laughter, but no noise was coming out. Now, he was doing some dance moves, and he looked ridiculous.
Roxane crossed over her yard to him but he dashed to the back yard. She looked back at me and then as if a silent agreement had been made, we both took off running after him.We made it around the house and he was crouched down looking at something, Roxane said it first.
"What are you doing?"
"Come see,"He had pulled the fedora off and had sand colored hair,he'd also taken off the sunglasses and his eyes were looking down. I got closer and finally I could see what he was looking at,it was one of those fuzzy black caterpillers.
Then Roxane spoke,"Where did you-," But then the guy jumped up and ran past the grass, through the sand, and into the waves."Don't get my feather boa wet!" Roxane yelled with a small laugh in her voice.
"Wouldn't dream of it!"
Then I started running toward the water and- fully clothed - I waded into the water. I headed for the man, he had gone under the water one hand holding his nose, the other grasping the boa above his head, out of the water. He came up and I said,"What are you doing?"
"I'm Oliver," he said holding his hand out. I shook it and asked my question again.
"Well, I'm looking for the gateway to the other world."
"What other world?"
"The one where the trees are made out of candy canes and the houses are made of licorice and stuck together with icing."
"You mean the world where everyone is too fat to speak?" Roxane had walked up behind us and was knee deep in the water. Oliver looked up at her and stuck his tounge out,then she rolled her eyes.
I sat down in the water, grabbed my nose and stuck my head under. It was warm because of the sun, but I thought about what Oliver had said and realized the other world people would never be warm because you would have to keep all that candy from melting. I dont know why I thought this, but I did.
I came up for air and Roxane had sat down and was talking to Oliver."No, I'm not going all the way there just to see your cousin for 15 minutes then come home."
"Come on Rox, I might buy you a paddle ball," Oliver said as if he were talking to a 5 year old.
"What are you two talking about?" Neither of them seemed to hear me so I got up squezzed out my shirt as best as I could, then started trudging through the water to my house.
My friend, Anastashia, was sitting on the steps going into my house when I walked up. She stood as I walked toward her."Hi. I thought you were in North Carolina," I said. On one of the first weeks of summer vaction her family always went to North Carolina to visit her cousins.
"Quinn got sick." Quinn was her sister that seemed to always be getting sick. She was only seven, but that was the sickest child I've ever seen.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Well....we got new neighbors."
"Was that them ou-" Just then, Anastashia's mom was on their porch across the street calling her.
"See ya later, Sliter."
"Yeah. Bye, Anna." She looked at me for a second then ran to her house. I turned and looked out at the water. Adults say kids dont care to look at stuff like water or trees for a long time, but I do. I dont know why really, just that I like watching them as if they were an animal in the zoo.
*****
Have you ever gotten up just to see the sunrise? Because I have, Kaitlin always wakes up one morning at 5:15 and drags me outside to see it. But she only does it once a month so I guess its okay. We finished painting my room three days ago, now its blue with green stripes instead of white. My mom said we couldnt paint it white because it would dirty to easily. Now it was 5:30 and we could see the blue light that comes immediatly before sunrise.
"Why dont you go get your neighbor friends?" Kaitlin was the only one I had told about the Smith's, not like it was a secret or anything, she was just the only one who would listen. My dad would have listened but he was in the army at the time, so I couldnt really tell him.
"Im sure they're asleep."
"Hmm." Thats what Kate always said when she didnt really know what to say.
*****
Fireworks were definetly on my top ten list of favorite things. BOOM! Another one went off just as Anna was coming back with a Kapri Sun, she sat down beside me on one of the picnic tables behind our house. My parents had met the Smiths and Oliver and they liked them, so we were having a 4th of July barbeque, Anna's family was here, too. Everything seemed brighter in that moment. The fireworks. The smell of hotdogs. Everyone. Everything. It was the next day when everything became dull again and just...changed.
*****
The pickup and car were gone from their driveway, but sometimes one of them would take it and the others would sit around licking melting popsicles. The striped curtains were gone from their windows, pulled back. The picnic table was pushed back against the side of the house, they weren't using it right now. But as I climed the front porch steps I realized none of these things were true. I looked through the window into the living room-nothing. I suddenly thought of something and dashed down the driveway to the mailbox. I couldn't even see where the sticker that said 'Smith' had been for a month. They were gone. Ashes in the wind. Like they. Never. Even. Existed.
****
Sometimes I wonder where they went. Or if they ever even came. My mother said something important must have come up and they had to leave, but that's clearly not the truth. I know it's not. I didnt think it was odd that they had moved, people moved all the time. It was how they did it. One day they were there, all of their things, nothing packed, everything in its unassigned, yet assigned spot. Then they werent, they wouldve had to move everything in a matter of hours. I dont understand it though, but i guess there are some things we never will.

The End