They're Not Like Us

Chapter 2 The Inventor and His Lady Move In

The monument sign for the main entrance to Camelot Estates has been finished for months. In fact, that sign, and the wall were the first things completed. Its length is equal to an eighteen-wheeler truck trailer and its' height is about one-half of that type of truck. Setting perpendicular to the highway and back about ten yards atop a brick base, its message is clear. Camelot Estates in big bold lettering and just below that, smaller cursive lettering says Royal Living Texas Style.

At the back gate, the size of the identical design sign matches more to a small van. The unspoken message is the same if you can afford it, why shouldn't you live there?

Trucks are lined up along the circled driveway. The two large moving vans have come from Odessa in West Texas. They are carrying most of the things of value that have been collected over the years, by Ted, Annette, and Marcy Crownover. Any items that did not make the cut were given to Annette's mother's book club, annual garage sale fundraiser.

The mini mover delivery truck came from Metroplex Luxury Living, in Arlington, less than ten miles away. It is carrying the new washer and dryer, outdoor super kitchen grill, and patio furniture, for both patios. Also, with this delivery will be all the equipment for Annette's home gym, which includes a full wall custom mirror and a wall-mounted TV.

The Garfield's Fine Furnishing truck is packed with four complete rooms of new furniture and a couple of dozen odds and ends. Ted and Annette have both embraced their responsibility of making sure that move-in day goes perfectly.

To any of the people that know them, they would not be at all surprised to see Annette hanging around the Garfield truck. She likes new stuff.

With those same people, they would also not be surprised to see Ted standing next to the moving vans. He would want to make sure all the old stuff that he is comfortable with, is taken off the truck.

The moving company seems to have a good plan and they work that plan very well. Per their meeting with Annette, they learned all of her wants and the priority of those wants.

They are wrapping up their part of moving day. All the boxes that are marked with labels like bedroom 2, bedroom 3, home office his, home office hers, and so forth are in the proper rooms.

Anything that had to be disassembled has been reassembled. After the drivers, their helpers, and Ted completed a walkthrough, all of the movers headed back to West Texas.

The crew of unpackers hired from the temp agency shows up in the afternoon, to keep them and the movers from getting in each other's way. That crew was large enough and trained well enough that they were only on-site for a couple of hours.

Marcy, their sixteen-year-old is upstairs in her room. She is taking every item out of the boxes labeled, TEENAGER'S ROOM PRIVATE DO NOT UNPACK and putting each of those items in a place where she will always be able to find it.

She is an honor student that has relocated to a new private school. On this day with is moving day, her home study schedule has been adjusted. Without voicing a single complaint, she walked in the door, got a soda out of the fridge, when upstairs, and started working.

The sun has set, and her mom and dad are both in the kitchen. Annette is putting dishes and cookware into cabinets. She had been disappointed and frustrated because in the kitchen everything was setup wrong. It did not take long for her to admit to Ted and herself that, it had been set up according to her plan. It was she that changed and decided that she did not like the plan. After Ted hugged her, laughed at her, and then with her, he told her he was going to take a walk up to their curbside mailbox to see if anything is in it.

Ted is surprised that the mailbox is almost full. He is thinking of grocery store coupons and advertisings for takeout food. There is some of that, but also there are things that he hadn't thought about like ads for landscaping contractors. There were three of those and a couple more for maid service.

There was one that made him chuckle. It was for nanny services He thought, we have a teenager, I might be more interested in some good helicopter surveillance services.

"Hello, New Neighbor."

Since Ted had his back to the street, he had to turn completely around. He saw, what he was sure would be the top-of-the-line model that Mercedes makes. Then the door opens, and a very well-dressed man stepped out and started toward him.

"You guys must be the Crownovers." The new neighbor said.

Ted responds with, "Oh hell, we have a reputation here already, I haven't even broken or damaged anything yet. Well, I did run over that hairless cat with the blue ribbon tied around its neck, but I buried it under some weeds and brush.

With his hand held out the new neighbor smiled and said, "Yeah, as if you would be able to find any tumbleweed or brush out here. I'm Richard Landers"

Holding out his hand, Ted roared with Laughter, "You got that right. This place is well kept beyond words, I will have to work hard to get accustomed to this, and you also got the name right, I'm Ted Crownover." How did you hear about us?"

"I was in Arlington at the Twin Towers and ran into Jill Kavanagh. She told me that you guys should be moving in this week. From what part of the country are you guys coming"

Ted said, "Annette, my wife, and I are from Odessa. We were both born and raised there. I also spent some time out of the country working in a Saudi oil field."

Impressed Richard said, "Wow, Saudi Arabia, okay, you are officially a guy that has some good stories, a hamburger off the grill, a bottle of wine or a keg of beer and I will be ready to hear them all. I am from the northeast. My lady Terri like you guys is from West Texas, she is from Abilene, I lived out there for a while. That's where I met her."

Richard stopped talking, looked over to Ted's house in the background, then said, "I am sorry Ted, for a moment I forgot what moving day or even moving week is like. I just wanted to meet you and welcome you to the neighborhood. I'm not going to hold you up anymore."

Holding out his hand, he continued. "I understand that you guys have a teenager."

"Yep, Marcy she's sixteen."

"Terri and I will give you time to get to something that looks like it could be normal, then we are going to invite you Annette, and Marcy over."

With that Ted headed back to his big new home and Richard got back in the top-of-the-line Mercedes and drove off to his, even bigger home.