A Painless Discovery

“Did you see that?” Loraine Robertson asked her husband Lawrence. “Hank Armstrong was just skateboarding, fell off his board, and smacked his head against the pavement. He just got up and kept on going. He must have a hard head!”

Hank Armstrong was one of five Armstrong family members. They just moved into the house next door and already everyone on the street thought they were the strangest family in the world.

Loraine turned to look at her husband.

“Did you hear me?” She asked, scowling.

“What? Huh? Um, yes I did. But I think you should just leave that poor family alone.” Lawrence answered, not wanting to look Loraine in the eyes.

Loraine was the type of person who always made situations worse with her gossiping habit. She once ran a family out of the neighborhood because she couldn’t stop talking about them behind their backs. Lawrence was not going to let that happen to the new family.

“Why don’t you do something instead of looking out the window all day? Like reorganize the junk drawer or plant flowers. Just stay away from that window!” Lawrence screamed.

“Well, okay. I guess I could go without looking out the window for a few hours,” Loraine sighed.

Once Loraine left the room, Lawrence crept out of the house, lightly closing the door behind him, like it was a delicate piece of glass that could shatter if closed too hard. He walked down the pathway and took a left. Everyone was staring, but he kept his head held high like a giraffe and walked right up to the Armstrong’s door. He knocked a slow steady knock, took a step back, and waited as he heard footsteps coming to the door.

After a moment, Lawrence got the idea that maybe he was making a mistake. He was about to turn around when the door screeched telling him it was indeed a bad idea. Lawrence began to sweat. If he wanted to run, now was the time. Slowly, a foot appeared, then a whole leg. The door crept open and with every inch more and more of a man’s body was revealed. Soon the entire man was standing in front of him, a gleaming smile on his face.

“Why hello there! Sorry I’m a little excited being that we haven’t had not one visitor in the month that we’ve lived here.” The man answered in a thick southern accent.

“Oh hello, I’m Lawrence Robertson. I live next door with my wife Loraine and my son Alex. Lawrence sighed, relief washed over his body.

“Nice to meet y’all, I’m Peter Armstrong. I live here with my wife Sara, my two sons Chad and Austin, and my daughter Mary Kate.” Peter responded.

Peter gestured for Lawrence to follow him. He stepped inside, the door tapped close behind him.

“Sorry, I’m doing wood work outside for my wife and I need to get it done before she gets home. But we can still talk; I just have to work while we are. Hope y’all don’t mind.” Peter explained.

“Oh no that’s quite alright. What are you working on anyways?” Lawrence questioned.

“A deck actually. Can you believe this beautiful Victorian doesn’t have a deck?”

Peter’s thought lingered in the air for a moment. Then Lawrence replied, “That’s unbelievable!”

They played follow the leader, Peter leading Lawrence to the backyard where his equipment was set up. Peter opened the door and they were greeted by a huge, beautiful backyard. Lawrence looked to the side and saw the deck Peter was working on. He stepped closer and looked down to examine the deck’s stairs. These are so dangerous, Lawrence thought. The nails were sticking out and pieces of wood stuck up just waiting to be jabbed into someone’s foot.

“What do y’all think?” Peter urged.

“Well it’s gorgeous!” Lawrence lied through his teeth. He didn’t want to upset his new friend.

He went over to a vacant lawn chair and watched Peter work. It looked like Peter was working on putting the rails on the sides of the deck. Peter hammered nails into the wood one after the other. As he went to hammer in the last nail, the hammer came down and side swept his thumb, creating a sound like a bowling ball hitting into the pins. But the odd thing was he just kept hammering like nothing ever happened. Maybe I saw it wrong. Maybe it actually was the wood he hit and not his thumb, Lawrence thought. He just let it go and sat there talking to Peter for hours.

After what seemed like decades later, Sara Armstrong came home.

“Peter? Peter where are you?” she asked.

“Out here, hun,” Peter retorted.

Sara came out the back door where the newly built deck stood. The door slammed shut as she sauntered down the hazardous steps. Her bare feet kissed the stairs with every step she took. Lawrence was on the edge of his seat, just waiting for her to scream in pain. As she stepped off of the last step Lawrence heard the sound of wood being broken off the step and as it lodged into Sara’s foot.

Lawrence waited for her to scream in pain, but that never came. Maybe he had heard something that sounded like Sara got a splinter, but it was an entirely different noise.

His thoughts were interrupted by Sara’s high pitched voice.

“Hello there, I’m Sara Armstrong. And who might I ask are you?”

Lawrence stood, outstretching his hand.

“I’m Lawrence Robertson, your next door neighbor.”

Their hands embraced in a friendly hug, slowly moving up and down.

“Please to meet you,” Sara’s kind smile answered.

Lawrence went to sit down when he noticed something in Sara’s foot. He squinted his eyes and noticed the object was sun kissed brown and was pretty deep in her skin. It was the piece if wood he had thought he heard break free and stab itself into her foot. How could she not feel that? Lawrence questioned himself. Maybe she didn’t want to cause a scene and make Peter feel bad. Lawrence looked down once more. His eyes glided over Sara’s foot to where the splinter was, but he couldn’t find it. He looked around her feet and found the piece of wood right next to her foot.

“Is everything okay, Lawrence?” Peter commanded, gazing at Lawrence, a curious look on his face. “You look like a deer stuck in the headlights.”

Lawrence nodded, sat up straight, and looked Peter in the eyes. Sara changed the subject.

“Hun, I bought way too many burgers at the supermarket. Do you want to see if maybe the Robertsons would like to come over for a barbecue?” Sara requested.

“Wee doggy, that sounds like a great idea!” Peter screamed, excitement spilling from his body.

“Alright, I’ll go ask my wife and we’ll be over in an hour.” Lawrence remarked.

About an hour and a half later, Lawrence, Loraine, and Alex walked over to the Armstrong’s house.

“Do you have any idea what this will do to my reputation?” Loraine complained.

Lawrence ignored her and walked along with his family to the front door.

“Be nice, please.” Lawrence begged of his wife.

They heard footsteps scattering towards the door. The door flung open revealing a thirteen year old girl.

“Hello you must be Mary Kate. We are the Robertsons from next door.” Lawrence told her.

“Yes hi, come on in.” She stepped aside and allowed the family to come inside.

Loraine slowly made her way into the house, followed by Alex who looked around for Chad and Austin. Lawrence walked into the kitchen to help Peter with the grilling of the burgers. Sara walked out of the kitchen and walked straight over to Loraine to introduce herself.

“Hi there, I’m Sara. You must be Loraine. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Sara retorted.

“Hi,” was all Loraine said. She didn’t even have a smile on her face.

Loraine went over to sit on the couch. Sara went into the kitchen the smile slowly fading from her face. Lawrence was outside with Peter cooking the hamburgers. Peter started the grill, the flames were balls of fire being spat from an angry dragon’s mouth. Peter cleaned off the grill making sure every last bit of whatever it was they had last time was gone and nowhere to be seen. He placed the burgers evenly along the grills grates.

“Are you having a good time?” Peter asked.

“Yes, this is the best time I’ve had in a long time.” Lawrence confessed.

Lawrence smelled something burning. He looked down at all the burgers but none of them seemed to be burnt. His eyes moved over to an object on the corner of the grill. He couldn’t believe it. It was Peter’s hand.

“Peter! You’re hand is on the grill!” Lawrence frantically yelled.

All Peter did was laugh as if hand was not burning to bits on the grill.

“I thought you knew.” Peter said.

“Knew what?” Lawrence yelled.

“My family and I, we can’t feel pain.” Peter confided.

Lawrence couldn’t believe it. He gathered his belongings and his family and got out of that house as soon as possible. That was the last time the Armstrongs and the Robertsons talked to each other. Three months later the Armstrongs moved and were never seen again.