Chapter One
The old hatchback with a slight clank in the mostly harmless rumbling of its engine pulled in the neighbor’s driveway. The garage door buzzed on and started to rise, though the car stopped in front of the trash cans at the side of the house. The driver hesitated a moment then leaned toward the passenger mirror. His hands returned to the wheel and the vehicle backed up and pulled forward again, drawing closer to the driveway’s edge.
This same ritual played out nearly every afternoon, as the old man watched from his rocker on the porch: The peculiar habit of his new neighbor, the great care to leave space in the driveway, the opening of the garage door, though the young man entered the house through the front door. His female companion always arrived home a couple hours later,
