Secrets In The Shadows

Betty lived in a quiet suburban neighborhood. There were tree lined streets and children playing in their yards. She was always watching the goings on and reporting to any one that would listen. Some called her “The mouth of the south” and some said she had “Loose Lips”. Either way she was in everyone’s business. Lately she had her eyes on her neighbor to the left. He was a single man in his fifties. Bill was a relatively peaceable man, but there was something happening at night in his garage.

Betty peeped through her curtain and watched as a truck backed up to Bill’s garage. She could faintly see the silhouettes of people. He had his lights off so she couldn’t clearly see what they were doing. Then the truck pulled off and under the street light she noticed a tarp tied down on the back. Betty wondered if they were disposing of a body. Then she decided that couldn’t be it unless there were multiple bodies. The reason being this happens every few weeks.

Betty had also noticed several bulky deliveries every few weeks. As before Bill kept the lights off during the deliveries. She asked herself if he could be running a home business out of his garage. She said that wouldn’t cause him to turn the lights off. There’s nothing hush hush about a home based business. She wasn’t going to give up until she knew the answers. The next day she noticed he had left the house. His garage was a separate building from the house.

Betty snuck over and was going to try and peak through the windows when she was noticed by another neighbor. She tried to blow it off “Hi Frances”. Francis asked what she was doing. Betty told her she was going to ask for a cup of sugar. Francis laughed “You know single men have empty cabinets. I can get you a cup of sugar”. Well, now she has to walk with Francis to get a cup of sugar. She would have to wait till there was no one around and it was darker.

Normally Betty would spill the beans to her neighbors, but this time she wanted to find out for herself first. Later that night Bill was heading into his garage. She decided to try and talk to him. He saw her and quickly went into his garage and locked the door. Bill knew quite well how nosy she was and he didn’t need her knowing his business. He had no intention of going to jail again. Bill had changed his name and moved to keep from being found.

Betty walked back home discouraged, but looking over her shoulder the entire time. When she was back home, Betty sat on her front porch without the porch light on. Maybe she could get some ideas as to what he was doing. She watched as a few vehicles came and left Bill’s garage. Each came in and left with their headlights off. None of them stayed very long. She noticed a sweet smell in the air. Was this smell coming from bills or was someone cooking a late dinner.

Betty couldn’t sleep for worrying about what Bill was up to. Things like meth lab, human trafficking, growing marijuana or selling stolen goods crossed her mind. Whatever he was doing she would find out. The safety of her neighborhood counted on it. She drifted off to sleep and dreamed of men with guns and drugs being sold. She woke up and screamed. She told herself “Go back to sleep you’re just dreaming”.

Betty woke up the next morning exhausted from bad dreams. She pondered the risk of him coming after her and then shrugged it off. Betty had to make corn chowder for the neighborhood potluck. She went to every store locally and there was no corn except for frozen. She never used frozen corn in her chowder. She had always cut corn off the cob. She wasn’t aware of any crop issues or corn shortages. She wondered if it had anything to do with the cream corn smell she had noticed in the neighborhood. Certainly one of her neighbors wasn’t fixing her dish. She always made the corn chowder.

Betty made it back home with the corn she purchased two towns over. As she was unloading her car she smelled the aroma of sweet corn again. Someone was cooking corn. She took her items in the house and started prepping her corn. All of a sudden she heard a lot of yelling coming from outside. She dropped her corn on the counter and ran to the door. There was a man at Bill’s house and Bill was telling him to leave in a very loud voice. She heard him tell the man not to come back till after dark or there would be trouble. She knew something illegal was going on now.

Later that night Betty was determined to find out what was going on even if it killed her. Then she wondered “He wouldn’t kill me, would he”? She turned her porch light off and sat outside watching. Here come the trucks again and of course their headlights were off. They stayed for a little while and left with a tarp over the bed. She walked behind the gardenia bushes in her yard and tried to listen when another vehicle pulled up. She could hear quiet whispers and what sounded like glass clinking. What on earth were they up to? She was going to pick a time when he didn’t have a lot of traffic to approach him.

The next day Betty decided it was time to knock on his garage door and get to the bottom of things. Her stomach was in knots at the thought of getting to the truth. For the first time she was nervous about being nosy. She remembered the old saying “Curiosity killed the cat”. Well she wasn’t a cat and she didn’t want to die. She mustered up the nerve and marched over to Bill’s garage. She knocked and no one answered. She felt chills come over her as the door creaked open. He hadn’t shut it good and the knocks eased it open.

Betty held her breath as he walked inside the garage. What she saw surprised her and she gasped. Bill walked in and she jumped with fear. He put his hand over her mouth before she could scream. He said in a low , but firm voice “I will take my hand off if you won’t scream”. She nodded her head in agreement. He said “Well now you know! Are you happy”? Betty asked “Are you going to kill me”? He laughed and said " No I won’t kill you, but don’t tell anyone”. She proceeded to ask “Can I have some? If so my lips are sealed”. Bill gave her some of his corn liquor and they became friends over a jar. This was one time it paid to be nosy.