The Boy Next Door

Part One

Drew Castleman attended Radnor High School and earned his BS in Biological Sciences from Villanova University, which was only a short commute from his parents’ home in Wayne, Pennsylvania. There was little one might call exceptional about Drew. His choice of biology as a major wasn’t dictated by any unusual ability with which he’d been endowed. He randomly chose a minor in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience from a list that included Psychology and Environmental Studies – because it sounded profound.

After one semester, he switched his minor to his major because his high school sweetheart, Ann, had broken up with him for no explicable reason and the professor of the course had enlightened him to plausible reasons that had previously eluded him. The real reason for the breakup was that Ann simply was attracted to another boy. However, the episode set him on a quest for self-discovery and the study of behavioral science, which seemed more applicable at this stage in his young life then did the study of cell structure or evolution.

Unfortunately for Drew, his studies in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience didn’t help him much with his relationships with women. Through friends at the University he met several attractive and intelligent girls whom he invited on dates, but who couldn’t warm up to him, either as a friend or a sexual companion. As he approached his senior year, he considered himself similar to a lab rat, experimenting with approaches that might captivate females, altering his persona to adapt to their perceived needs. He assisted the girls with their studies, served as a confident, and enabled them to conquer their insecurities. He championed their causes, lent a sympathetic ear to their issues, and provided optional approaches for dealing with their teachers, peers and acquaintances.

These young women showered praise on his insights, and acknowledged the results of his counseling, but ultimately parted ways with Drew, leaving him to pursue answers within his own cognitive and behavioral self. One might assume that Drew was being led to his chosen field by the acknowledgment of, or more appropriately, the lack of recognition by, women. But, being a twenty-year-old male, relationships were important, and with each strikeout with a woman, the more he needed to metaphorically find the sweet spot on his bat and the ideal swing that would get him to at least first base with the ladies he found most captivating.

Drew graduated without honors from Villanova University and convinced his parents to support him through the University of Pennsylvania’s Neuroscience Graduate program at Penn Medicine. Still living at home, Drew took on a part-time job as a server at the Great American Pub in Wayne to supplement funding for his graduate studies.

While Drew attended graduate school, both of his mother’s parents passed away, and Drew and his sister received a portion of their assets as an inheritance, including their home on Midland Avenue in Wayne, designed by William Lighthouse Price in the late 1880s. Many of the siblings’ most cherished childhood memories were of events on the home’s property with its wide lawn and lush gardens planted and maintained by their grandparents.

Drew’s grandfather had owned a construction company that specialized in the restoration and repair of vintage properties, and was known and respected for the architectural integrity maintained in the homes refurbished by the firm.

Drew’s parents lived in a mid-century house on the border of St. Davids. His father was a trust manager who had little interest in his wife’s parents’ tastes and had built their home with lots of light and open spaces to accommodate their modern lifestyle. Drew’s sister, who was eight year his elder, was already married and had two children when her brother was still in high school, and was delighted to have her grandparents’ inheritance to help pay for her children’s education.

Drew, on the other hand, applied at his high school alma mater for a position as a biology and genetics teacher. With a decent salary, sufficient funds and no real responsibilities, Drew, after accepting the teaching job, decided to buy his grandparents’ home from his parents and sister, which was a surprise to all of the family members – even to Drew.

The house was in excellent repair, but Drew relearned the tasks necessary to maintain it in his spare time of which was little, since he was continuing his education at Penn in order to earn a doctorate degree in Genetics and Epigenetics, interests he’d acquired recently, along with a desire and an acumen for learning his grandfather’s chosen trade. As a child he had watched the older man turning porch posts on a lathe in the workshop he’d built at the rear of his property. It had been only recently that he recalled the smell of the turned wood, the satisfaction of creating a post from a squared-off piece of lumber, and the scent of primer and paint.

Before his grandfather died, Drew spent weekends with him in the workshop being schooled on the use of the various tools and the techniques he’d learned over a lifetime. His grandmother was a second-generation Italian, born in American but educated in the art of cooking by her mother and grandmother. Drew only realized after his grandmother’s passing that the aroma of Sunday gravy and meatballs had permeated into all areas of the house. The kitchen had changed little over the years and still housed her folded, handwritten recipes in books that filled two shelves of the pantry built by her husband ages ago.

For his doctoral thesis, Drew had selected “The Interplay of Genetic Ancestry in Shaping Metabolic Health Outcomes Across Diverse Populations.” He used his ancestral chart as a guideline and categorized the foods of each region in hope of determining the effects of diet on lifespan. To support his theory, Drew used records from the early 18th century until the present as a gauge to measure the metabolic health of generations culturally separated until the current era. By his father being of German ancestry, his parents had narrowed the genetic line with the birth of his sister and him. Being that Drew’s mother was the person who cooked in the family, he and his sister had mostly dined on a modified Mediterranean diet, while his father, whose ancestry was primarily of German origin, had been diagnosed in his late 30s with both high blood pressure and an elevated cholesterol level, possibly due to the larger intake of saturated fats and meat products in his early years.

Although well-researched, Drew’s thesis proved little over only six generations, since his ancestors on his father‘s side had consistently outlived the parallel generations of his mother’s side. Though older than his mother’s mother and father by five and seven years respectively, Drew’s grandparents on his father’s side were both very much alive in their late 70s, while his mother’s mother was diagnosed with colon cancer that ended her life at 64, with her husband soon passing soon thereafter from a brain aneurysm at the age of 67. 

Drew concluded his thesis with a statement that diet alone was inconclusive in any ancestral study without extensive knowledge of each ancestor’s genetic traits, lifestyle, and other causes of death such as war, famine, natural disasters, accidents and infectious diseases. He also noted the fact that the average lifespan of people in Europe and America in the 19th century was 45-50 years as opposed to 75-80 years today, and that nutritional factors, smoking and drinking had less of an effect on lifespan in the past centuries than in the 21st century, an era when a greater percentage  of the population could, due to modern medicine, have their lives extended to nearly twice as long as humans of prior centuries.

Drew’s professor had warned him at the onset that nutritional factors for extending life might not provide conclusive evidence, but Drew pursued the path anyway, believing that at some point the evidence would lead him to a better understanding of his family’s ancestral journey, as well as of his own hopes for a longer life.

What the project accomplished was to nudge Drew into becoming an educator, by alerting and cautioning him of the need to qualify queries prior to posing them. In reviewing his life thus far, Drew revealed a pattern of impulsivity when attempting to hypothesize his theories. After earning his doctorate, rather than pursuing a position in a university or biotech industry, Drew remained a teacher at Radnor High School, the place where he would soon meet his future wife, Amy McBride. She’d been recruited by the school to develop an interdisciplinary program that combined Social Studies with English in subjects ranging from Global Issues to Viewpoints on Modern America. 

Amy had attended Bates College in Maine and relocated to Radnor from her family’s home in Massachusetts. Her major had been American Studies, with a minor in Anthropology. She was 23, perky and opinionated, and a challenge for Drew, to get to know, since his record with women was spotty, at best. Amy was at first intimidated by Drew who she’d heard was possibly the most educated teacher in the school, and one of the youngest. She didn’t see him as shy, but rather aloof, if not dismissive.

Teachers at Radnor High typically ate lunch in small groups with other teachers within their teaching disciplines. But Amy either didn’t get the memo or ignored it and found herself lunching with members of the science department. That was where she first met Drew, who was still attending online classes and lectures at Penn. Amy had enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts program at Penn, with a focus on American studies and American Literature. Since both she and Drew were attending Penn and had a common interest in anthropology, one of their initial discussions concerned Theodore Dreiser’s novel, An American Tragedy, the story of a young man, Clyde caught between the opportunities of a better life with socialite Sondra Finchley, a young woman of means, and his responsibilities to Roberta Allen, a country girl with few resources and a similar background to his own, whom he’d unfortunately impregnated prior to meeting Sondra. The drama focused on Clyde’s choices, the opportunity for success and status, or a life of continued struggle with the added burden of a child.

  Amy’s perspective of the novel was quite different than Drew’s in that she had great sympathy for the dilemma of Roberta and none for Clyde, while Drew felt sorry for both. The discussion soon turned into to an argument begun by Amy who spoke out brashly, “How could you care about that man’s dilemma? He was an amoral monster and murderer!”

Shocked by Amy’s vehemence, Drew quietly admitted that Clyde was definitely in the wrong, but that Dreiser had made a valid point of how a situation like this could exist for Clyde, who had grown up severely disadvantaged.

“That’s obviously a man’s point of view,” snapped Amy. “Clyde murdered the girl!” 

Drew couldn’t stop himself from making a defense for Clyde and answered, “That never was proven since she was the one who rocked the rowboat and caused her own fall into the water...”

“So you think he didn’t intend to kill her?” questioned Amy.

Drew had no answer for that, so he remained silent.

“Intent matters, Mr. Castleman!” With that final statement, Amy grabbed her sandwich and soft drink and stomped out of the room.

I did it again, thought Drew, as the male teachers in the room shook their heads and turned to face him with only slightly sympathetic smiles, while the few women in the room glared at Drew in disdain, as if they were a jury placed in charge of convicting him as well as Clyde for the death of Roberta. 

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Part Two

Amy soon found the lunchroom of her peers and made a point of avoiding Drew when passing him in the hall or leaving a classroom. Drew liked Amy’s spirit, and was attracted to her independent nature. He had merely, once again, made a stupid mistake in posing an argument in what he thought was a debate.

Drew found out that Amy lived in an apartment about a mile from Radnor High, and that she walked to school every day despite the weather. Drew would often pass her coming or going, and one day in the pouring rain, he saw Amy sloshing through puddles while aiming her umbrella into the wind with water battering and drenching her. He slowly pulled up next her to offer her a ride, saying, “I know that you’re not particularly fond of me, but the weather is truly terrible today. Won’t you let me shuttle you to work?”

Amy wasn’t quite sure what to do, but she also knew that she’d overreacted in the lunchroom, so she took down her umbrella and placed it in the rear of the car, and then took the passenger seat while thanking Drew for his assistance. Neither of them spoke for the first two blocks, and then Drew spoke up. “After our discussion, I reread the book that sparked our debate. Or, rather not the whole book, but the chapter involving Clyde’s thoughts prior to the scuffle in the boat, her fall, and Clyde’s perfunctory search for Roberta. It was obvious that he hoped he wouldn’t find her alive.”

There was a pause and then Amy volunteered, “I overreacted, and was wrong to put blame on you. My previous boyfriend ghosted me. It was part of the reason I distanced myself from my previous life  and accepted the job offer at Radnor.”

“Then we can call a truce... for now?“ Drew asked. “At least until I say something else that pisses you off.”

Amy laughed at that.

“Had you been dating him long?“ Drew then asked.

“We’d been dating since high school. Then I went off to college in Maine, and apparently he started dating other girls, while I stayed true to him.

“It should have been obvious to me that we couldn’t maintain a long-distance relationship through four years of college, but I remained a fool, even though the past few times I came home we weren’t all that close. I mean, he still wanted to screw me, but that was as close as we got.”

Drew pulled into the high school parking lot and turned off the car. Amy retrieved the umbrella from the back seat and the two walked to the school close together, shielded from the rain. Once inside, Drew asked, “If it’s still raining when school’s over, I’d be happy to drive you home. You apparently don’t live far from me.”

“That’s very kind of you... Mr. Castleman, Or should I call you Doctor Castleman?”

“Drew’s just fine. Here’s my cell phone; you can put my number in it and text it to yourself. Then you can decide if you want a ride or not.”

“Thanks, again! We’ll see how the day goes,” Amy answered, as she turned in the opposite direction from him and walked down the hall.

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It took some time for Amy and Drew to forge a relationship. Drew by his nature said things that irritated Amy, and he found it a struggle to try to phrase things in a way that wouldn’t annoy her. But the one thing they agreed about beyond all else was Drew’s house.

Drew always picked Amy up at her apartment and took her back home after dinner. She apparently didn’t own a car, but did have a Massachusetts driver’s license. The supermarket was quite a distance for her to travel on foot, but she managed to transport bags to and from the Giant market in a fold-up cart. Drew offered to drive her to the market but, for the most part, she enjoyed the walk.

Following a lunch or dinner at a restaurant with him, Amy didn’t invite Drew into her apartment, but gave him a kiss goodbye before leaving the car. One afternoon, before dropping her at her home, he stopped at the entrance to his house to pick up a vase he had turned on his lathe to show her. When they arrived in front of his house, she looked over at him in surprise and said, “You live there?”

“Yes,” he said. “It was part of the inheritance from my grandparents, and instead of selling it I used most of my share of inheritance to buy it from my parents and sister.”

“I love it!” she said with a big smile on her face. “Tell me more about it.”

“Like many of the homes on my street, it was built in the 1880s by the builders, Wendell and Smith. This one and many others were designed by the Price Brothers, one of whom was William Lightfoot Price, a noted architect from Rose Valley, a craft community located about 10 miles south of here. 

“My grandparents lived here, in Wayne, most of their lives. Would you like to see the inside?”

Amy nodded, and Drew walked her down the concrete path to entrance that featured s wrap-around porch with hand-carved columns, and led into a relatively small living room darkened by shadows from the porch overhangs.

“It’s cozy,“ said Amy.

“That it is,” said Drew as he took her through a narrow hall to a newer addition at the rear that served as a family room. He then walked her up the stairs to three medium-sized bedrooms, a bath and another stairway that led to a third floor studio apartment.

“I’m impressed,” said Amy. “By the way, there’s a scent in the house, It’s sweet with a touch of rosemary.”

“That’s from the kitchen,” answered Drew. “ It’s years of my grandmother’s cooking embedded in the walls. It’s mostly the smell of Sunday gravy, which I’m trying to learn to make from her recipe – but it seems she left at least one of the ingredients out.”

“That’s the trick of cooks. My mother’s half Italian and she always said that she made gravy based on her mother’s recipe, but it’s not the same without her. After many generations have passed, I can’t believe that there would be enough ingredients remaining for the gravy to be edible, since at least one of the women would have left out the tomatoes long ago.”

Before leaving the property, Drew took Amy behind the house to his grandfather’s workshop and showed her one of two large wooden vases he was turning on his lathe for installation next to the front door of the porch. As he and Amy were leaving, a boy about twelve years old came walking across the lawn.

“Hi, Ned!” said Drew, before the boy reached them. “Can I help you?” 

“Not really, Mr. Castleman. I just saw you both out here on this lovely day and wanted to say hello.

“And who is this pretty woman?” said Ned, addressing Amy.

“I’m Amy, and I’m a teacher at Radnor High School. I work with Mr. Castleman.”

“I see that he’s shown you his shop. I would come out and work with his grandfather on weekends when I was little. Isn’t that right, Mr. Castleman?”

Drew said nothing.

“Well, I’m glad to meet you,  Amy. By the way, what subject do you teach and what grades?”

“Juniors and seniors. A combination of Social Studies and English. My students have to write a paper at the end of each semester.” 

“I’m in 7th grade, and I like to read. My favorite book is The Old Man and the Sea.”

“Are you a Hemingway fan?” asked Amy.

“Not really, but I like that book. I wrote a book report for Mr. Nix, my English teacher. He gave me an A+ on it.”

“That’s wonderful, Ned. Is there any other book you really like?”

“Oliver Twist... and Tom Sawyer.”

“Good choices,” responded Amy. “Did you ever read Moby Dick?”

“It’s on my list. I also haven’t yet read Treasure Island, but I have a copy of the illustrated book by the famous artist.”

“N. C. Wyeth?”

“Yes. That guy. 

“Well, goodbye...and have a nice day...Amy. Can I call you that?”

“Of course, Ned.”

With a quick wave, Ned then ran home across the lawn.

“What a nice boy,” said Amy to Drew.

“Not really,” answered Drew. “He never helped my grandfather in his shop. He fabricated that just to make himself seem friendly. He’s not.“

“Come on, Drew. He’s  polite, inquisitive and courteous. What more can you expect from a 12-year-old?”

“He lied, right in front of me.”

“He must have spent some time with your grandfather at least once,” said Amy.

“I seriously doubt it.”

“Well, I, for one, like him. He’s friendly and he has some manners.”

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It took a few months for Amy to trust Drew enough for the two to form a physical relationship. And although Drew drove her to and from school each day, they remained separated during lunch, and rarely spoke during school hours. They also had dinners together, but frequented restaurants in the surrounding communities, so as to not let on about their developing relationship.

By the fall semester, Drew had asked Amy to move in with him. Prior to that they often spent evenings and weekends at his house, and she had volunteered to take on some of the household and garden duties while he worked in his shop, corresponded with colleagues or attended online conferences on genetic and epigenetic related topics as well the latest news on CRISPR and gene-editing technology.

Ned stopped over frequently when he saw Amy alone in the yard or on the porch, and they’d  talk about books and projects they’d each taken on outside of school. When Amy asked about Ned’s parents, he usually changed the subject, but a few times opened up about difficulties between his parents.

“I never see them outside,“ said Amy.

“They rarely spend time out-of-doors except to go from the garage into the house.”

“What do they do for a living?” asked Amy.

“Dad’s an attorney, and my mom’s a realtor. They seem to live rather separate lives. My father’s usually home late from the office and my mother shows houses most weekends. They very much liked Mr. Cast;eman’s grandparents, but I’m not so sure they like Mr. Castleman.”

“Well, I can understand that... Drew’s pretty hard to get to know.”

“I don’t think he likes me, either“ said Ned.

“Well, let’s just say he’s sometimes quite intense.”

To supplement her income during the spring semester, Amy got a job in a dress shop a short walk up the street from Drew’s house. The owner was Korean, and personable,  and Amy enjoyed assisting women with their selections. She usually worked only on weekends, which gave her plenty of time for reading, a pastime she very much enjoyed, but which also served to bring her closer together with her students. She was already familiar with the best known coming-of-age-stories, novels such as  The Catcher in the Rye, The Outsiders and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but broadened her list of recommended books to include The Perks of Being a Wallflower, With Fire on High and I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which were considered somewhat controversial, but were relatable to high school students of that era. 

One early July evening, Amy mentioned a conversation she had had with Ned earlier in the day, and told Drew that she was concerned about the boy.

Drew remarked, “And I’m concerned that you’re concerned, Amy. There’s  something seriously wrong with that boy.”

“Come on, Drew. He’s just a lonely young boy. He told me that his parents work. Have you ever met them?“

“Sure. Ned’s father hung out with my granddad, and his mother use to trade recipes with my mother. Have you seen his parents recently?”

“No, but I’ve watched Ned just standing and watching me when I’m working outside.“

“He seems to know that you don’t like him. What’s your problem, Drew?”

“I don’t know, Amy, but please don’t reveal too much about yourself to him.”  

Amy didn’t answer Drew’s question or pursue the issue any further.

The following day, Amy was on the porch watering the flowers in the planter under the window when Ned came across the lawn and shouted to herin the liychen . 

“Hi, Amy!“

“Ned? Good to see you. It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”

“But you make it even lovelier, Amy.“

Very much surprised by Ned’s response, she answered, “Not so lovely today in these gardening clothes,“ she answered while dusting off some soil from her bib and trying to fix her hair.

“So, how’s the world treating you, Ned? What’s been going on?“

“I’ll be away for a couple of weeks with my mom, and she wondered if you could possibly water our flower beds while we’re away.”

“Sure, Ned. No problem. Where are you going?”

“Ocean City, New Jersey.”

“Nice! Will you be staying near the beach?”

“Practically right on the water.”

“Is anyone else going to join you there?”

“It’s just Mom and me.”

“Your dad’s not going with you?”

“He’s too busy with work right now. Maybe he’ll join us later.

“Oh, by the way, my mother wanted to know if you would mind picking up the two papers delivered to us, and take in the mail?”

“Sure, Ned! But won’t your dad be home to do that?”

“I’m not sure. They just wanted me to ask.”

“If you need me to take in the mail,“ said Amy, “I’ll be happy to do it. Shall I keep it here or put it somewhere in the house?” 

“Just keep it for us until we get back.”

“Will do.”

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Part Three

When Drew got home, Amy was in the kitchen cleaning the oven .

“Anything new?” Drew asked.

“Ned stopped over and asked if I’d water their flowers while he and his mother were at the shore,” said Amy. “So please remind me of that. He also wanted the mail and papers brought in as well.”

“Did he give you a key?”

“No. He just said to hold onto the  mail until they got back.”

“Where will his father be?“ asked Drew. “Won’t he want his mail?”

“Ned didn’t say.”

“Hmmm?” responded Drew quietly.

“You were saying...?” asked Amy.

“Nothing.” 

Drew felt his head about to explode. But instead of angering Amy by questioning her further, he decided to walk across the lawn and see if Ned’s father was home. He climbed the porch stairs and knocked on their door. It was still early in the evening, so no lights were on inside the house, but he peered through a window after repeating his set of knocks a third time. The house appeared empty.

Still on the porch, he walked quietly around the corner and peeked though another window. Just then he heard someone running around from the back of the house. It was Ned.

“Hello, Mr. Castleman. Are you looking for me?”

“Not you, specifically, Ned. But I thought I’d speak to your father about anything else he might need from us while you and your mother are away.“

“Dad’s not home yet. But Mom and I leave for the shore in the morning.”

“Is your mother in, right now?”

“She went out shopping for some last-minute things we’ll need at the shore, and won’t be back until later.“

Drew glanced at his watch and noted the time: 6:30.

“Have you had your dinner, Ned?”

“Mom will make it when she gets back.”

“Will you let her know that I’d like to speak with her when she arrives.“

“Sure, Mr. Castleman.

“By the way, where were you today?”

“I...why do you need to know that?”

“Just wondering, since Amy was alone all day.”

“Are you spying on me, Ned?”

“Of course not. It’s just that it’s summer and you don’t have classes.”

“I have other things to do, Ned. And frankly, it’s none of your business where I was.”

“But you just asked me where my father and mother were. Is that your business?”

Ned, then, just stared at Drew, before turning around and walking to the rear of his house.

Drew returned to his own house and went straight to the kitchen.

“Ned’s still at home,” he said to Amy, ”but neither of his parents are. Wasn’t he supposed to be leaving for the shore?”

“That’s what he told me. Maybe they’re leaving tomorrow morning,“ Amy answered.

“Well, after dinner I’m going over there again to see who’s there.“

“Suit yourself,Drew, but it’s not really your business when and where they go.”

Drew left the kitchen before he exploded at Amy. Twenty minutes later, Amy came out to the porch to find Drew staring across at the neighbor’s house. “Dinner’s ready. Please come in before the food gets cold.”

Throughout the meal, the dinner was eaten in silence.

“You’re obsessing, Drew,”Amy finally said.

“There’s something wrong with that kid! Did he say anything else to you when he was here?”

“Yes, in fact he did. He remarked about the beauty of the day, and told me I made the day lovelier. Those were his exact words.”

This made Drew even angrier. “I tell you, Amy, the kid’s a psychopath. His parents are probably buried in the basement.”

Amy laughed. “You’re kidding, aren’t you? You can’t be serious?

“Or... perhaps you’re jealous that he said I was lovely, even in my gardening clothes, and you haven’t said a thing about the stuffed peppers, let alone this slinky outfit I put on after my shower.”

Drew didn’t know what to say, but as soon as dinner was over, he went back out to the porch and waited for anyone next door to come home. Amy washed the dishes and went into the family room to watch TV, while Drew kept track of the time on his watch.

After an hour had passed, Amy went out to check on Drew and saw that he’d fallen asleep on the rattan couch on the porch. She shook him and told him to come inside, and then he noticed a light in one of the windows next door.

Someone was home.

Drew told Amy he’d be right back, and then quietly went across the lawn to the neighbor’s house and knocked on the door. After the second knock, Ned appeared.

“Ned! Is your father at home yet? I’d like to speak to him.”

“Not yet, Mr. Castleman. He’s been held up at work.“

“May I then speak to your mother?“

“Sorry, Mr. Castleman, she went out again about 20 minutes ago.”

“Have you had dinner yet?“

“Yes, Mom came home about an hour ago with take-out. I told her that Amy was going to water her flowerbeds and pick up the mail. She said that she was pleased and that she would write her a note of thanks.”

Drew looked at his watch. “Why did she go out this time?”

“I don’t know. Is there anyway else I can be of help, Mr. Castleman? If not, it’s getting late and I need to get to bed since we’re leaving early tomorrow morning.”

Drew, without saying goodbye, turned and walked back to his house and into the family room.

“Any luck?“ Amy asked.

“Ned was there, but neither of his parents were. He said that his mother went out again, and his father hadn’t returned from work.”

“What’s your next move, Drew?” Amy said sarcastically with her arms folded.

“I suppose I’ll get up early and see who’s there and who’s not.”

“I think you should get some rest, dear!”

But sleep was hard to manage as Drew played various scenarios in his head concerning the boy, the family and his suspicions. He was a geneticist, and knew that psychopaths manipulated people, as well as told lies convincingly. With Ned’s repetitive use of “Mr. Castleman, this”, and “Mr. Castleman, that”, he showed every tendency of being a narcissist and a  compulsive liar. Drew wasn’t to be taken in by the boy’s superficial charm, shallow emotions and manipulative manner. Amy was more concerned with Drew’s compulsivity and obsession with the boy.  She knew that Drew had always had signs of having an obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she’d observed in some of her students, but she’d never seen Drew quite this agitated during their relationship. 

She knew that it was true that Ned was a bit odd, and that he might also have a crush on her, which Amy found endearing, but except for Ned’s mention of working with Drew”s grandfather in his shop, that possibly Drew had forgotten or not known about, she had observed nothing dangerous or malicious about the boy.

Drew finally came up to bed and set his alarm for 6:00 a.m., believing, surely, that Ned and his mother wouldn’t be leaving before then, and he wanted to see if both cars left, if not together, within an hour of each other, or whether his suspicions were true, that the boy had somehow had done away with his parents.

It was at this moment that Drew wished he had installed cameras around his property like most of his neighbors had done. When he got into bed, Amy was already asleep. No matter how he tried to distract himself from the various malevolent possibilities, he couldn’t fall asleep. Finally, after two hours of tossing and turning, he took a Xanax tablet and drifted off, not awakening until the alarm went off. He got up quietly, careful not to wake up Amy, went to a bedroom facing the side of his neighbor’s house and saw no lights on. But it was summer, he thought, and the sun had already risen.

He then went to the bathroom, peed  and brushed his teeth, before heading quickly back to the window where he could see the driveway.  Noticing no activity, Drew sat on the edge of the bed and waited. Ten minutes later he heard a rustling noise from his bedroom, and then Amy came in and sat beside him on the bed. She was worried about him. He took her hand and they waited together until she said that she’d make some coffee. No cars appeared in the driveway, and Drew was somewhat delighted that his hunch must be correct. Something was wrong next door and that little bastard, Ned, was the cause of it all.

At 10:30, Drew got dressed and left the house and ran to his neighbor’s door and knocked, not knowing whether there was anyone home or if Ned was still there with an excuse. Soon he heard footsteps and, surprisingly, when the door opened Ned’s father appeared with a coffee cup in hand.

“Hello, Drew! It’s been a while. To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Drew wasn’t sure how to respond as Ned’s mother joined her husband at his side. 

“I thought you were going to the shore this morning... but it’s kind of late,” said Drew, looking at his watch.

Ned’s mother jumped in and said, “We were scheduled to leave early, but thankfully my husband completed his work late last night, and told us he could join us for our vacation. I guess I must have put the pressure on him to come, the poor man. He needed his sleep so we decided to leave a little later. He really deserves  the vacation more than we do.”

“Yes,“  interrupted Ned’s father. “I put a chink in their plans, but we’ll be leaving soon.”

“I so much appreciate your girlfriend’s willingness to take in our mail and water my plants. I dropped off a key and a thank you card to her in your front door just a few minutes ago, with a few additional instructions.“

Drew hadn’t seen his neighbor leave her house. She must have come out the side door, instead of the front, or stopped over while he was brushing his teeth.

Ned then came down the stairs and ran to the door. “Hello, Mr. Castleman, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Now go get your duffel bag, Ned, and hurry back,” said Ned’s mother.

She waited until Ned was upstairs. “I must tell you that I think Ned has a small crush on Amy. I hope he hasn’t made a fool of himself around her. I know he’s tried to impress her. He sometimes exaggerates when he’s unsure about himself, and he can be overly solicitous with adults. I hate it when he does it, but I guess it’s his way of coping.”

“No problem,” answered Drew. “I’ll give Amy the note and the key. And I do hope you all have a pleasant trip.”

When Drew returned to his front door, Amy was waiting.

“So, what’s the verdict, Sherlock Holmes?” she asked.

“Ned’s old man worked late last night so he could go along with them on their trip. That’s about it.”

Amy handed him his coffee.

Drew then glanced over at her with a cynical smile and, after taking a sip, said, “But I still don’t trust the little bugger!”

The End