The Trap

Chapter 29

"Come on love, let's get to..."

"Excuse me, but are you the new neighbors?"

She turned around to a familiar voice. Bethany's four children had acted like older siblings for her daughters. In fact they were a part of the welcoming committee who came over to the kids when they arrived.

"Hey Beth, how are you?" Paula asked so excited to see her again.

"I'm good and yourself?" Beth asked smiling.

"I'm great, thanks for asking," Paula said still smiling. "This is my boyfriend, Simon," she continued finally introducing the two most important people in her life.

Bethany was special to her because she was more like another sister to her than just a next door neighbor. She had been there for her when Rob was being abusive. In fact she and the girls had lived with Beth, her husband Mason, and their four children when she divorced Rob. Beth had helped her get through the hardest patches of her life and for that she was very thankful.

"It's nice to finally meet you. She talks about you all the time," Beth said smiling.

He grinned as Dylan rushed into the garage asking he could come and play with them. He glanced up at Paula, who nodded as a response to the question she knew that he was going to ask her. He smiled as he gave her a kiss on the cheek before leaving the garage.

"Si, please play nice with the other kids!"

He decided not to response to her insult, but planned on getting her back later that day.

"So P, what are you doing?"

"I'm going through all these boxes and keeping the items that I want. And then I'm going to give way the stuff that I don't want anymore."

"So um are you going to put this house on the market?"

"Yep that's the plan."

"We'll miss you guys."

"Likewise, but we'll come back to visit."

They embraced each other as both of them started to tear up. Paula glanced over Beth's shoulder to see that most of the block was standing on her driveway. She gave her friend one more squeeze before releasing. Paula looked and smiled at each and every one of them as tears began to fall down her face again. Since she had lived there for about a decade, she had deep and personal relationships with each of them. All of their kids had become like her own children. Holly and Lily were close in age to most of the children and had grown up with them. They all acted more like siblings than like neighbors. All of the adults acted like parents to all of the kids regardless if they were their real parents or not.

The neighborhood was one big family. Paula loved that part about living there. But she loathed her house because of all the bad memories that came along with it. Of course there were good memories of bringing her newborn daughters home from the hospital, to when they learned how to walk. But she desperately needed to get out of the house for her own safety. She was terrified that Rob would come back after he had got out of jail. She had a new life and she loved every second of it.

"Hey are you alright?" Beth asked worried about her.

"Oh yeah Beth, I'm fine."

Paula exited the garage to hug all of her neighbors. They all said things like how much they had missed her and the girls. To how glad they were to see them back. She grinned from ear to ear as she went back to work. The men left in a big huddle, to let the women talk.

"So is it true that you have a boyfriend?" Kelsey Miller asked whispering. She and her family live on the left side of the Baker's.

"Yep he's the large kid playing in the street," Paula replied pointing at him.