leaning over to pick it up off the gravel poorly maintained road he thought someone was going to be really upset  probably put their iPhone on the roof of the car and drove off forgetting they had

it was straitjacketed tucked inside a safety case

it was still on locked

                      hed finish walking to the market and on the way home drop it at the police station he assumed they had the technologythey had a sophisticated ex-military armored riot vehicle to get into it before the battery ran cold 

it was fully charged

standing upright he tossed it into a Trader Joes canvasbag that hung over his shoulder

before he went back to the book he was reading as he walked he slipped out a halffolded piece of paper he carried inside it to make notes to write the addresses east west sides of the street two apartment complexes he wasnt that good a Samaritan to rap on door  so happens in this red town fearful town an unexpected rap coud get one shot 

Why do you keep living there, Dad? his girls asked  You have nothing in common with the majority of them.

I do I do  They irritate me so I irritate them

   noted he put the paper back in the book but before he began reading he caught out the corner of his eye the next house south  east side 

                         a twostorey flatfaced dull brown house no invitation there not even to Trick or Treat if that were a thing anymore it squat on the foremost lefthand corner immediately after the dirt drive that ran there was no garage up along the side of the house and behind it a sixfoot vertical plank fence began it looked like a line of cemetery wood gravemarkers over the top of it he saw rusted corrugated outbuildings beyond  it was easy a square acre lot easy 

searching his memory he couldnt say hed seen as foreboding a house outside a ghost town 

                                                                                                 ghosts would be receptive

his were

          made it their business to remind him he was only renting their house 

My spooks likely he thought wouldnt want any part of this joint 

   bringing the book up to his face he began readingwalking again had no sense of being watched 

                                                                                                          ghostless

 

1235,  Monday,  10  4. 23

1407,  Thursday,  4  5. 23