Again (PUBLISHED!)

Chapter 27.

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I always thought Crawford Lane was an extremely amazing neighborhood with extremely good people. That the residents of this lane stayed miles away from everything that was bad, unjust and wrong. That the residents of this lane could never ever indulge in anything immoral and scandalous.

How terribly mistaken I was.

There were people in the lane who had extra-marital affairs with their next door neighbors, did drugs, were corrupt in their professional lives and what not. There were also couples who indulged in swinging....

And how did I come to know of what went on behind closed doors in this neighborhood?

Devon.

Devon, in the past couple of weeks, had brought the dirty linens of the neighborhood in the public.

Thus the once peaceful and reputed lane had now turned stained and chaotic. Devon had scared the lives out of the residents since they now constantly dreaded that they would be next at whom he would point a finger in front of everyone. Almost the entire neighborhood hated Devon but he went around nonchalantly with a 'I-give-a-fuck' attitude.

Just two days ago, when I had gone to my next door neighbour's house to read with Jackson, I happened to overhear some parts of the strained conversation between Devon and his father.

".....so try and understand! You can't go around tarnishing reputations like that!" Mr. Parker was saying, "We live here, Devon."

"Agreed that few of my accusations turned out to be wrong but most of them are true to the last letter," Devon defended sharply.

"Almost the entire neighborhood has become hostile towards us! We can't keep on moving out of everywhere. We've to fit in some place!" Mr. Parker said in despair.

Devon had clenched his fists, his jaw had hardened as he began to speak coldly, "So you think there's nothing wrong in having an extra-marital with a next door neighbor? That adultery should be encouraged? You'll be sad to know, Mr. Parker, that my thoughts don't match your filthy ones!!"

Mr. Parker had tried to clarify himself but Devon had interrupted him in a very harsh voice, "Don't talk to me on this ever again with that sleazy mouth of yours!!"

Then I'd seen Devon storm out of the house in anger leaving a pale Mr. Parker in a state of anguish and distress...

And tonight, Devon had done one more thing.

He got arrested. For the second time.

It was evident Mr. Parker regretted telling me about his son's arrest. But then at times, when you're too worried, you tend to blurt out the very things you don't want to.

I spent a sleepless night. By next morning, it seemed the whole neighborhood had come to know of Devon's arrest. Apparently, the person who had spread the word had seen him being handcuffed and pushed into the police car. More than half of Crawford Lane was tremendously happy with the news. They never wanted Devon to come back but their hopes were brutally dashed when Mr. Parker got Devon back to the Lane the same afternoon.

Gran was among those people who had lots of issues with Devon coming back so soon. She expressed her displeasure to me during lunch.

"That Parker boy was arrested for serious amounts of reckless driving," said Gran with a deep grudge.

"Yeah..." I muttered, having a feeling it wasn't gonna end well.

Gran frowned hard. "An elderly lady suffered a panic attack witnessing his dangerous driving and had to be admitted to the hospital. Thankfully she's okay now."