June 2022
Readers,
I have often been accused of my stories being a bit slow with not enough physical description. This story is no exception. I believe that physical description is not as important as personality description, complete with some back story to explain why my characters act the way they do and that means my stories have a slower buildup.
joeehartley
Jack read over the text he planned on turning into a flyer to pass out to his neighbors. It was far too wordy, but he felt he needed to explain why a stranger was inviting people over to a backyard barbeque.
He had lived in this neighborhood for almost seven years now and had not met any of his neighbors. He had excuses; it took time to fix up his house, doing repairs and such--but that had all been completed after the first year. He was forced to conclude that the reason he hadn't met anyone was that he himself suffered from shyness. He rarely even saw any of his neighbors; they rarely left their homes. It was an older neighborhood with most who lived here being retired and not very active.
He saw gardeners visiting various houses to keep the outward appearances neat and clean. He saw cleaning people visit apparently to do the same to the insides of these homes, but the owners of these homes only rarely ventured outside except to drive off in their cars.
He was lonely and felt he needed a bit of social interaction. He tried walking around the neighborhood several times a week to get some much-needed exercise, but more importantly to maybe meet any fellow walkers he could interact with. In the three weeks since he started, he saw no one else walking.
He felt that most of his neighbors were as lonely as he was since he never saw anyone visit any of them with the exception of service providers. He saw a few of them at the store when he did his weekly shopping, but never said anything to any of them. His shyness held him back; he had no idea how to start a conversation.
He saw a couple of women on occasion that he fantasized about meeting and getting to know. It had been many years since he had any female companionship.
He resumed his work on the flyer he had been working on for several days. He decided to keep it simple and changed it to say: "Welcome to a Get-to-Know-Your-Neighbors barbeque this Saturday at 1 PM." He also listed his name, address, and phone number.
He printed out 6 copies of his flyer to distribute. He was not a wealthy man and couldn't afford to throw a party for dozens of people. He figured he could feed six and not be overwhelmed. He then set out to plan the menu and decided to modify the flyer to include the menu. He added "Menu to include BBQ Chicken, Baked Beans, and Potato Salad," and printed out another six copies.
Jack distributed the flyers to the people he thought's he'd like to meet including the two women he fantasized about, then headed off to the store to buy what he needed for this Saturday's barbeque.
The next day Jack started to have second thoughts about inviting his neighbors over. What if they did not like his house, or his yard? What if they didn't like the food or did not like him? He busied himself by cleaning up his back yard and making it as presentable as he knew how. He also brought out his Weber that hadn't been used in years and spent two hours cleaning it. He had fresh briquettes and a chimney starter that he actually remembered how to use. He cleaned his house and paid special attention to the bath rooms. He would not want to offend any of his neighbors by making them used a dirty bathroom.
He reviewed his recipes for preparing the chicken for barbeque, his homemade barbeque sauce, his baked beans, and his potato salad. The potato salad needed to be made at least a day in advance and it wouldn't hurt if the beans were likewise ready on the day of the party.
He prepped the chicken and placed it in his refrigerator. He would make the potato salad tomorrow, but he needed to soak the beans overnight.
Friday morning, he started the beans early. They would have to bake for several hours and put the potatoes on to boil. Just before noon the potato salad was done and resting in the refrigerator and the beans were baking in a low oven. He was as ready as he could be.
Saturday morning found the baked beans back in the low oven warming up and the table in his back yard set with plates and such. He had made a batch of iced tea and had the coals starting in the chimney starter. He knew the chicken would take an hour to cook so at 12:30 he put them on the grill and waited for his guest to arrive.
He knew he was over anxious and put on some music to lighten his mood. He waited and did not panic that no one would show up until 1:05. By 1:30 he concluded that he'd have barbequed chicken for his next several meals and started to put things away. The chicken was done, but he was no longer hungry. He was depressed. He'd tried to reach out and failed.
He had just stacked all the plates and dinner wear together to make it easier to take back inside when he heard, "Hello, am I too late for the barbeque?"
Jack turned and saw one of the women he invited. He did not know her name but he'd noticed her often before, shopping in the grocery store. "Not at all. I was beginning to wonder if anyone was going to stop by. I'm Jack."
"Well, I almost didn't. I don't get out much, but when I saw your flyer and your address. I knew who you were. I've seen you before. I'm Julie and I think it takes a lot of courage to reach out to meet people the way you did and I thought the least I could do is come over and say hi. Am I the first one to show up? How many people did you invite?"
"Hi Julie, I invited 6 people since I didn't think I could handle any more than that? I was just about to put everything away thinking this was a bad idea. You are the only one to come by. Would you like some chicken and fixings?"
"I'd love some," she prepared her plate and took a seat. Jack followed her to the table with his plate of food.
"I've seen you at the store every so often and wanted to introduce myself, but didn't know what to say after 'hi'," Jack admitted.
"I noticed you too and I can relate to the fear of approaching someone new," she agreed.
"Do you have any friends or family nearby?" he questioned.
"All my family is now grown and live out of state. We rarely even get a chance to talk, much less see each other and after my divorce, everyone I knew just seemed to drift away." Julie replied.
"I can relate, I have a similar story. Do you have any hobbies or interest? I have taken up walking and am finding that I'm gaining a bit more energy," Jack offered.
"Not really, I used to go out for brunch most mornings with a friend and talk about everything that was going on, but she moved away and I no longer have much that is going on to talk about. I'm somewhat afraid to walk alone--you hear all these stories about women being attacked," Julie shared.
