Boy Next Door: Part 1

By PENELOPE TODD

There was whining, a shout, a doop-doop-doop! I heard, 'Whoah!' as I struggled awake.What was happening? I rolled over and squinted at the clock radio - 7:33.

The sounds became a truck backing, a man calling. 'More to the left. Left! Straighten up. Okay. That's it now.'

The engine shut off.

Next door. Someone moving in. I staggered out to the kitchen. A white van top showed above the hedge. A door slammed, bolts clunked. I unlatched the window.

Another man's voice: 'There you are. We'll give you the morning to get the small bits out, then we'll come back and do the heavy stuff, okay? You got help coming, right?'

Silence.

'Well, don't go trying to lift those boxes by yourself, son. Wait for your folks.' A hard crunch of feet on stones, a car starting, going, gone.

Publisher: Longacre Press

Price: $16.95

Age group: 9-13 years


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