*DAVE - 23 Mayfair*

"Did he have a Chinese Menu in his hand? Was he was walking through the streets of Soho in the ra..."

"AND I'm gonna have to stop you there"

"Awwww, I didn't even get to the part about Eey Ho Flix"

"It's Lee Ho Fook's, and you're not funny"

Ok, between you and me Jack was funny, but I swear to Christ I know what I saw.

"I always thought it was Eey Ho Flix. Huh. Ya learn something new every day"

"Jack, enough. C'mon man I'm not kidding around."

I love Jack, don't get me wrong, but there are some things he just doesn't get. important things. He's a great guy, but there's this weird limit. It's hard to explain exactly, but here's an example. Jack can't make out shapes in clouds. A cloud that 100% looks like a dog with a slingshot and Jack can't see it. That's how Jack is with these kinds of things.

"Davey-boy, I believe that you believe that you saw ... are you sure it's Lee Ho Fook's? Wait, no, no, no, it's Trader Vic's!"

"I'm not doing this Jack. I just came out to see the moving truck. Alex seems to think ..."

"Trader Vics right? It's totally Trader ... no, wait, that's where he drank the pina...."

"Goodnight Jack."

I turned away and started heading home.

"C'mon Dave, don't be like that"

I turned, smiled and politely gave him the finger.

"See you tomorrow Jack"

Alex was waiting for me in the kitchen. Her only comment about the new family was in regards to their moving truck. She thought it should have been bigger.

"I see you and Jack are getting along fine and dandy"

"Oh Jackie-boy's a real hoot"

"See? I told you the truck wasn't big enough"

"What's your obsession with the truck?"

"How do you move into a new house and not ..." Alex looked up towards the clock and grabbed two plates.

"David grab the napkins. We're eating early. I've got to be back at the hospital. I'm covering for Susan"

"Great ...."

"Awwww. Don't worry my big brave man. You'll only be home alone until morning. We already had the full moon so don't ..."

"Oh my God. Three weeks. THREE WEEKS and I'm still taking crap. You and Jack should take this act on the road."

"Hey, we'd make the audience howl! See what I did there?"

"Ya ya ya. You're a regular Joan Rivers"

Alex actually was funny and she could find the dogs and their slingshots.

I must have dozed off on the couch. The news was talking about the mauled deer that was found on Kent Street. There are no bears around here, so no way a bear did it. Kent Street was just around the corner from us. We lived on Mayfair. Quiet little dead end street. Our house was part of the cul-de-sac portion of Mayfair. We lived across the street from Jack and Alice and the new folks lived at the tip of the cul-de-sac. They were the dead end.

I went over to the window and peeled back part of the drapes to sneak a peek outside. I see what she's saying. The truck is kind of small for that size house. Maybe they didn't have a lot of furniture or all the useless stuff that people accumulate over the years. Maybe this was their first home in the good ole burbs. They'd get to experience trick or treaters, neighborhood watch, raking, trash day.

Trash day.

I opened the garage and started dragging the trash can towards the curb. The left wheel was missing because I hate taking out the trash and let's just say that I'm less careful than I should be.

"Hi"

I jumped! "JESUS! ... sorry .. sorry ... *nervous laughter*... you scared the crap out of me"

"I'm SO sorry. I didn't ..."

"No, no, no. It's ok. Ha! I'm a little jumpy with Hallowe..."

"I'm so sorry."

We did the apology dance for a few more rounds. Laughed a bit. We were both embarrassed. She was very pretty so I was more than happy to give the impression that I'm super friendly, accommodating and forgiving.

She went on. "Oh, this is too funny. Just the way I wanted to make a first impression, right?"

"I'm just glad I didn't scream like a little girl. Woof, that'd been awful. Well, hi right back at you. I'm David Landis."

She had a firm handshake.

"David, great to meet you. I'm Loryn Chaney"

Loryn saw me taking out the trash and had some questions about trash day and leaf pick up and other things that one needs to know on Mayfair. We talked for a few more minutes about what we did (she was a hair stylist) and I got the story of where she was moving from. How two years ago she opened up her own salon and it was doing really well.

"You should come in. Get a free haircut on the house. It's the least I could do"

"Thanks, but I'm letting the hair grow out a bit. People tell me I look a little like Bob Seger."

Loryn smiled. "Uch. I hate Bob Seger"

The conversation started to slow down and ultimately stalled, and we stood there with the stupid look two strangers have waiting for the other to say something. I've always been terrible at this part.

"Hey, how about that deer they found on Kent?" I really nailed this segue. The brutal death of Bambi. Nice job David.

"Ya, that's so ... anyway ... really great meeting you David."

Loryn sheepishly walked away and reminded me to come by the shop for a haircut. I finished dragging the barrels to the curb. Shut the garage and headed to the couch for some more TV time. Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Perfect. On schedule too. Just a few more days until Halloween.

'Bzzzzzzzzzz'

I had the cell on vibrate and of course couldn't find it. There it is.

"Yes Jack?"

"Dude, she's hot! Think I have a shot?"

"No."

"You know there's another full moon at the end of the week. I bet tha..."

"G'night Jack"

Alex pulled into the driveway at 8:13am. It was a pretty uneventful night at the hospital. Usually this time of year there's a lot of alcohol poisoning and Krazy Glue incidents. Alex must have seen at least a hundred fake beards incorrectly glued to faces.

*LORYN - 25 Mayfair*

Loryn watched Alex park. She thought about going out and introducing herself, but her leg was throbbing this morning and she felt a bit sick. She sat down stretched out her left leg and started rubbing just above the bite wound. She laughed to herself a little. She had small moments of fuzzy memories about that night. She doesn't remember the dog, but she sure as hell had evidence that it had been there.

There have been too many fuzzy memories lately and too many unexplained things like the deer leg in her basement. That's the one thing she can't understand and that's the one thing she didn't mention to Dr. Zevon.

She smelled the cologne for what felt like minutes before the knock on the door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

She smelled something else as she headed upstairs.