New Neighbors, Part I

As Miss Luby watches from her window a moving van backs up the driveway across the street BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! its warning cry has a beacon-like effect on the neighborhood arousing interest from all corners everything suddenly shaken awake Even the squirrels stop, stock-still save an occasional flick of the tail Miss Luby's cat, also watching from the window pauses momentarily, paw suspended before continuing to clean herself And one by one, the other inhabitants invent clever ways to investigate without seeming obviously interested Miss Luby's next-door neighbor, Fred flits outside to water the plants in his front flowerbeds, distractedly soaking the sidewalk instead While dotty old Mrs. Pappadopoulos puffs along, pulling her little Pomeranian up the street for a “walk” slyly turning her head, rather owlishly as she passes by Silvia, Miss Luby's other next-door neighbor is still in her housedress and can't go out so she sends her three beastly little boys out to play, knowing they will get the inside scoop and sure enough, within forty-five seconds they have accidentally-on-purpose sent a toy airplane across the street and spend the next half hour retrieving it following the new neighbors in and out like so many playful puppies Not to be left out of the hullabaloo, the hoity-toity housewife from two doors down high-steps out to size up the new arrivals over-casually strolling with her beautifully bundled babies in tow putting on quite a show suddenly disappointed realizing they're just common-folk not the kind she wanted to know All the while, the new neighbors exhausted, amble in and out of their new home staggering under stacks of small pieces lumbering along awkwardly lugging larger ones A teenage boy silently glides past on a skateboard giving side-eye to the boring, middle-aged couple- as he is nearly hit by a car passing by driver distracted by the moving van