path within it afforded a great place to play as well as a view to spy on
the activities of the neighbors. We had often gone to the woods to hang
out, and upon realizing the oddities of Mr. Dutrey’s behavior, had even
invited our friends to join us in our espionage. We would climb trees
with our binoculars in hand and watch as the older man stepped onto his
back deck, dressed only in his greying underwear, work boots and a pair
of gardening gloves. His body was just beginning to wrinkle, and white
was slowly overtaking his dark hair. Emerging from his house often with
a cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth, he would stretch and
yawn as if only just having woken up, then get to work in his rose garden
without ever dirtying a single pair of pants.
I looked at Pete to see if he had made the connection to our old
gardening friend.
“Mr. Dutrey! How are you?” he greeted him with a knowing
smile.
“I’ve been better, kids, I’ve been better,” Mr. Dutrey said with a
heavy sigh. “The wife’s pissing me off, so I figured I’d get out of the house
and do some yard work. Maybe make this damn place presentable,” he
gestured around the yard with another sigh.
“Well, it was nice to see you, sir,” I said after a few moments of
uncomfortable silence. He whispered something, but we couldn’t hear it
from the sidewalk.
“What did you say, sir?” my brother asked. I pulled on his arm
to try to get him to keep walking, not wanting to overstay our welcome.
Dutrey, however, didn’t seem to notice, and he slowly walked closer to us,
looking from side to side as if to make sure no one else was around.
“I just said that if you kids ever need anything, anything at all,”
he said and paused for an exaggerated wink. “Well you just let me know.”
My confusion must have been apparent.
“Weed,” he whispered to me. “If you need any marijuana, well,
I can get you some,” he said, looking at us expectantly. My brother was
grinning. I guess Mr. Dutrey took that as a positive response, and he thus
returned mysteriously back into the hedges with a smile on his face. “Ya’ll
have fun with your little cat now,” his voice called, muffled through the
leaves of the hedge. “God damn cat on a leash,” I could barely hear him
say. “What the hell’s this world coming to…” Pete and I stood for a while
in stunned silence on the sidewalk, before Olive leapt after a squirrel she
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