The smell of smoke from a distant fire was in the air when the deity salesmen rang the doorbell.
Albee answered the door the first time. He wasn’t sure why he bothered to leave his miniatures in the garage and walk all the way to the front door, but he did anyway. The only people who ever rang the doorbell were salesmen. Usually they were trying to sell lawn-care treatments or window cleaning or even new roofs. Like Albee would be around long enough at his age to enjoy a new roof.
When Albee and Church had first moved into the neighbourhood, the bell had rang almost every day with kids coming to the door to sell them cookies or chocolate bars or just to ask for their recycling for bottle drives. The kids had stopped ringing the bell after the accident. Now it was just the salesmen.
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