Feral!

Chapter 2

2

It was a chilly but clear day in mid-January. His old neighbours had moved the weekend before, leaving the four-story, three-bedroom, terraced house vacant for little under a week.

The removal van pulled up outside Nigel's driveway first, followed closely by two cars, Callum's Jaguar XJ6, and his eldest son Philip's metallic blue Nissan Skyline.

Nigel's first impression of his new neighbours wasn't favourable. "Laura, come take a look at this. They're here." He waited for his wife to join him in watching from their daughter Hannah's bedroom window on the first floor. "Look, they parked outside our drive."

With a sigh, Laura shrugged. "Cut them some slack, would you! It's their moving-in day. I'm sure they're just getting ready to start. I bet the van will park on their drive in a minute. If not, we'll give them a few hours. It's not like you need the driveway for anything; it's Saturday morning." She put her arm around his shoulder, kissed his temple. "Don't make this one of your little crusades, please? It'd be nice to get on with at least one of our neighbours."

"What do you mean by that? I get on with our neighbours." He turned as she went to walk out of the room. "Honey! I do. I get on with everyone on this bit of street."

Laura scoffed. "If you say so. You don't like any of them. You thought George was a weirdo before he and Janice moved. Now you've got a bee in your bonnet about this lot, and you've not even met them yet."

There was no skating around the fact his wife was right. Since moving to the west side of Sultan Road, Buckland five years ago, Nigel could count on one hand how many of his neighbours he liked. Four, and one of those had died last spring.

Laura asked him to reserve judgment until he'd at least met them. As she walked out of Hannah's bedroom, he replied that he would. "It'll be good. You'll see. They'll be the best damn neighbours we've ever had." He only wished he believed it.

"What's all the yelling about?" Hannah, his seventeen-year-old daughter, strolled in, plonking her elbows on the windowsill next to him. "Ooh, are they our new neighbours?"

Hannah took after her mum, thankfully, with long ginger hair, a pale complexion, freckles, and the daintiest little button nose. Even with a stud in her right nostril, she was still pretty, or at least he thought so. He hated the tattoo she'd had done last summer, but what could he do? She was nearly eighteen, almost an adult. "They sure are."

When the father opened the door to his Jaguar and stood up, Nigel saw how big the guy was. Colossal. He had to be six feet two, or three. When he did finally meet his neighbour, Nigel was sure his five feet nine would feel inferior next to that.

The wife / mum exited the car next. Nigel watched the tall, leggy blonde stand up. He thought she would be a looker if she hadn’t sprayed the makeup on. Even from up on the first floor, he could see she was too made up. He didn't think they went well as a couple. She was obviously his trophy wife.

Both rear doors of the Jaguar opened. Nigel watched as a young girl appeared. She had long dark hair, hoop earrings, and chewing gum. Chewers were one of Nigel's biggest hang-ups, not the least because gum got everywhere, especially in parking meters. The first thing he thought when looking at her was that her face looked like a dog chewing a wasp. She didn’t look happy.

Her brother of a similar age seemed to take great delight in annoying her. Nigel noticed Hannah's attention spike when he got out of the Jaguar and stood there brooding, with short dark hair, sharp eyes, and cheekbones he could hang things off.

Nigel didn't like the way Hannah stared at him. He especially didn't like the way she asked, “Who's that?”

Parked behind the Jaguar, two lads in their twenties sat listening to music. Nigel heard it through triple-strength glazing. He could feel the bass, dreading to think how it would feel outside or even in the car itself. When their father beckoned them, the music went quiet and both doors opened in unison.

"How many of them are there?" He didn't expect an answer from his apparently smitten Hannah. "It's only a three-bedroom place."

The two elder lads were in their early to mid- twenties, Nigel estimated, not that he was great at guessing ages. If anyone ever asked him to gauge their age, he played it safe every time: “Oh, not a day over twenty-one.” It always made them laugh, which pleased him.

"Are we going to introduce ourselves?" Hannah asked with enthusiasm.

"What are we, the welcoming committee? Not a chance. We'll let them unpack, then go and say hello. We don't want to look like nosey neighbours, do we?"

Hannah stared at her feet. "I guess not, but what about friendly neighbours? Can we look like friendly neighbours?"

"Oh, really? It's not because you fancy that lad, no?" He despaired of his second-born. She was always after boys. They were all she and her friends ever talked about. She worried him, and a lot. He didn't remember spending every moment he had talking to his mates at school about girls, certainly not like Hannah talked about boys anyway.

"Huh? Him? Pssht," she replied, the noise she made dismissive. "He's alright, I guess, if you like that strong, chiselled cheek look. He's not my cup of tea."

His daughter was a terrible liar. "Yeah, well, he's too old for you. You're better off looking at boys your own age. I'm not letting you out with the likes of him."

Hannah pouted. "What? That's not fair. You don't know anything about him."

"What does it matter? You said yourself he's not your type."

When his daughter stormed out of her bedroom to complain to her mum, Nigel grinned. Going back to the window, he watched the removals guys open the back of their van, using the winch to bring boxes to ground level.

"I don't believe it! They're unpacking." He knew it! Laura thought they would reverse into the neighbours' drive, but no, they just blocked his drive instead. His promise to Laura was the only thing stopping him from marching out there.

Watching the father from the first floor of his terraced house, Nigel noticed the respect he commanded from his boys, but not the girl. She stropped and strutted about. The boys, however, did as they were told. Even the eldest, who was nearly as tall, but skinny, skipped to it whenever his old man barked an order. Nigel couldn't tell if it was out of respect or fear.

Just when the negativity almost took over, he remembered his promise to Laura. Don't judge them until he'd at least met them. He might be doing the family a grave disservice; they might be lovely people, but he doubted it.