Black-Eyed Kids

THREE

Britney was walking out of the bathroom brushing her wet hair when the Pecks returned home the next morning. She walked into the living room as the door's lock clicked, and they pushed it open.

"Hi, Britney," Tina said. Her face drooped from exhaustion. "How was your night?"

"It was fine. Tyler's a blast," Britney said. She noticed both Tina and Robert looked more tired than usual. "Rough night at work?"

Robert closed the door. "Yeah, lots of strange accidents. Slip and falls on dry ground, lacerations from unknown sharp objects, a crush injury from a refrigerator that somehow rolled into someone, and a driver of a pickup died when he crashed head-on into the only tree on the road he was driving."

"Wow, that's crazy," Britney said, walking to the windows. She opened the drapes and looked outside, relieved she saw no weird kids.

"What are you looking at?" Tina asked, walking into the kitchen.

Britney shrugged, and then said, "Have you noticed three kids in the neighborhood that just, kind of, stand on the sidewalk and stare at houses?"

Robert laughed. "No, can't say as though I have. Have you?"

Before Britney could answer, an ambulance and police car pulled up in front of the house where she had seen the three kids go into yesterday.

"Who lives in the house next to the Porters?" Britney asked, watching the police and paramedics enter the home.

Robert and Tina joined Britney at the window.

"That's the Gilmores, they just moved in. A mother and her teenage daughter live there," Tina said. She walked away from the window and stepped outside on the doorstep. "I wonder what's happened."

"It doesn't look good," Robert said, standing beside her.

Britney could not help but wonder if the kids had something to do with it. "That's the house I saw those three strange kids go inside, last night."

"Are you suggesting the kids could have been harmed?" Tina asked with her eyes fixed on the flashing lights. "Or are saying the kids had something to do with it?"

"I don't know," Britney said, feeling bad she had not thought of the possibility that someone inside the house could have harmed the three kids. Instead, she jumped to the conclusion, because the kids were odd, that they could have done something to the Gilmores.

"What's going on?" Tyler asked, walking up, rubbing his eyes.

"Nothing," Tina said, directing Tyler back inside the house.

Before Britney and Robert went back inside, a next-door neighbor walked over. She had a cigarette in one arthritic hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

"Hi, Joyce," Robert said, stepping into the yard next to her. "Any idea what's going on?"

"Sure do," Joyce said with a raspy voice. "On the police scanner they said there were two fatalities, possibly homicides in the home. They were found by two people walking their dog this morning; it was probably Gary and Gloria, they walk their dog on regular bases down the cul-de-sac."

"Who were the victims?" Britney asked. Her voice quivered.

Joyce looked at Britney. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Well, it isn't like people get murdered around here all the time," she said.

"The scanner said it was two females; a woman in her thirties and a teenager," Joyce said, taking a drag from her cigarette. "It's the people who just moved into that house. What a pity."