Elmer Fennel- Chapter Two of Neighbor

Elmer Fennel

By Sarah Witham

October 22, 2018

Elmer Fennel wasn't much of a community man. He stayed much to himself, particularly after Patricia passed. His kids were grown and lived on the other side of Neighbor, and as such Elmer didn't get out and about much anymore. It wasn't really that he was a shut in or that he was anti social, he just mostly kept to himself. (He did have what one could consider an almost inappropriate interest in voyeurism with a telescope he kept in his living room, but mostly he used it to study the sky. But then again, he did like to study the Neighbors too.)

Elmer left his home a little past noon the day that the town realized the strange ship had appeared in the night. He was strolling along the boardwalk as he often did, head down bobbing a bit minding his business. He walked with his hands in his pockets jingling his change, a slight limp to his otherwise graceful gait. He had his head down studying the delicate and simple pattern in the brick sidewalk that always delighted him and that's why he didn't notice all of the people congregated at the sea's edge until he knocked elbows with Harley Smith.

"Sorry Harley, I didn't see you there"

"Oh no problem Elmer. Nice day it is eh?"

That's when Elmer really looked about and noticed all the Neighbors.

"What's taking place today, Harley? Have I missed some town news? Oh have they found more migrating sea turtles?"

And Elmer stood raised as high as he could on tippy toes to peer just over the pruned hollyhock hedge that bordered the walk. That's when he noticed the great strange ship.

"Well I'll be Harley. What a peculiar shipment sail. What are they doing way out there?"

"Well Elmer, that's the thing. We none of us Neighbors have any idea why that strange ship isn't porting. It's just sitting there, way out there. We haven't seen any movement on board either"

"Hmp" and Elmer found himself curiouser than he's felt in a while and more eager to speak with some other Neighbors to see what information he could glean from them on this strange incident.

Elmer walked over to a huddle of Neighbors, the Peren's and the Alzarreze's. They saw him approach and cleared a spot for him in the semi circle.

"Good day Neighbors. What's the news on this strange sail?"

"Good day Elmer. From what we can tell, the ship appeared to have approached in the night. There's news that Zurich noticed the sails last evening but it's unconfirmed whether it appeared any earlier. He was rather shaken up about it, being that it's the third Friday of the month"

"Sure, sure. I can see how this is troubling. And no one has witnessed any onboard?"

"Not from who we've spoken with"

"Hmp" and Elmers mouth stuck sideways in such a way that it wasn't to be righted again until Elmer satisfied his curiosity in this very peculiar matter.

He set about to work immediately, circulating about the huddles of Neighbors all about the seashore. He gleaned little from each small group of viewers, but their perspectives on the matter still enthralled Elmer. By the end of the afternoon, most people had viewed all they could view and simply had to get back to their chores. And really the sails had made no movement or change, save possibly a very slight change in the direction of the wind, but that was marginal and also untested.

Nevertheless Elmer was fascinated by the sails and found himself acting as the greeter to that small section of the seashore, updating new Neighbors on the gossip about the strange sails. He was delighted to be of service and found himself rubbing his cheeks from the burning of his lasting smile and squinted eyes from an afternoon on the seashore.

When it seemed as though everyone for the day had come and gone from the strange sails, Elmer found himself limping a little more on his walk home.

Elmer lived in a stately brick home. Although he was not seafront, his home was situated up a bit of a hill and between other structures so that one window in his home was centered exactly right, that to Elmer's immense delight, he could view that strange sail right from the bathroom window.

Elmer wanted badly to drag that telescope from the living room to his upstairs bathroom but try as he might, all the sun and conversation of the day put him into a timely and much needed nap in the sitting room.

Elmer woke up not as rested as usual, in part due to the fact that he dreamed of that strange sail. He awoke eagerly and despite the pain in his legs and arms and back from today's exertion, he went right about to moving that telescope and peering into that ship.

Now Elmer couldn't see much of that ship. He could make out the fine craftsmanship and details like the sails being made up of 47 different cloths. But try as he might to peer into the ship and glean more intelligence on the matter, he found nothing to report on.

Nevertheless, Elmer continued on for three more days. That was the extent of time that it took for nearly the whole town and all the Neighbors to come and see the exciting, albeit actually rather docile, strange ship. And Elmer all the while delighted in that ship and the busy seashore and he rather enjoyed greeting the Neighbors and sharing tidbits he had learned with his telescope. He shared information about the sails and the colors of the wood grain and the details in the wood work and most people were delighted to hear what he had to share.

But like with many things in Elmers life, his enthusiasm outweighed the situation. After three days of pondering, the Neighbors lost their interest in the strange sails. Fewer and fewer people came to the seashore to view the sails and fewer and fewer people cared to hear about the little things Elmer had discovered.

It was in the third day, after all the other Neighbors had all but forgotten about the strange ship, Elmer left the solitary shore’s edge at day’s end and puttered back up to his brick home on the hill. His hands shoved in his pockets, he sauntered home looking down at the brick pavement. He was back to enjoying the details in the brickwork, because life seemed back to normal.

The sun began to set on that fine night, and although exhausted, Elmer was delighted to have shared a day in the sun with a few of the Neighbors who retained an interest in the strange ship. He opened his wide, heavy wooden door and shut it tight with a satisfying thud. He put the porch light on so any passerby would have light to view their path. He walked through his living space, turning on the heavy iron lamps and picking up his dishes from lunch. A heavy lidded ceramic bowl speckled with gold and silver contained what was left from his hurried lunch of butternut squash soup with self raising bread with fresh cheese from the Alzarezze’s farm. He carried it to the sink in the kitchen and washed away the crusted edges of the left over soup. He reveled in the warm water against his skin as he soaped the dishes and dried them and placed them delicately back in his cupboard where they nestled amongst his other dishes.

Elmer had grown very tired as he sat perched on his bed, slipping off his slippers as he was ready to climb into bed and slumber. He closed his eyes and was about to drift off, when his eyes peeked open again.

“Maybe just another quick peek,” Elmer said outloud. He hurried over to the telescope, and soon enough Elmer was back to exploring the unknown secrets of that strange ship through the powerful lens of the solitary telescope.

He couldn’t be sure of course, being frail and old and having poor eyesight, and being rather exhausted from the past three days of excitement, but he thought he saw a skinny man in dark clothes walk across the surface of the ship, moonlight glistening around his frame and highlighting the deck, and fiddle with the trailing ropes and then walk back across the deck to hide back inside.

Elmer jumped up away from the lens shouting, “Oh, Oh!” filling his small, quaint room with the sound of his enthusiasm, but no one around to share the excitement with.

In his haste to share the news, Elmer forgot that he wasn’t technically wearing any pants. He was, of course, wearing pajama pants, but that’s not really the same thing as wearing actual slacks. There are lots of pants that can be considered pants. There are slacks, and trousers, and jeans and jogging pants. Shorts are also a version of pants. Any of these would have been appropriate for leaving the house in. But pajama pants are not pants that you can leave the house in- with the very rare exception to occasionally sneak outside on the weekend to grab the morning paper, or perhaps take out the dog. But really, you should only leave the house with the appropriate pants on. And this is particularly the case when you are rather old and a lot of your dignity comes from the decency to continue to wear pants and keep them pulled up to an appropriate place on your frame, even when you no longer have a profession that makes you leave the house, and even when the frame of your body no longer seems to want to help keep the pants on your body at all.

Well back to it, in his haste, Elmer forgot that he wasn’t technically wearing any pants. He was just too eager to share the news of what he had seen with someone, that he left his house and in two minutes was back down the brick walkway and was tapping excitedly on Harley Smith’s front door. Harley opened the door exactly one minute later.

“Good evening, Harley,” said Elmer good naturedly.

“Good evening, Elmer,” said Harley, confusion on his face as he considered the rather odd timing of his neighbors intrusion, as well as the odd ensemble he rang the door in. “What’s wrong, Elmer?”

Elmer leaned against the door frame, a little out of breath from all the excitement. “Nothing, friend. Why?”

“Well, Elmer, you don’t have any pants on,” said Harley, looking down at Elmer’s pajamas.

“Oh,” Elmer looked down for the first time. He blushed a moment and smiled, “Oh, sorry about that. I saw something amazing and I just rushed out the door to tell you, not really thinking about my clothes.”

“I see that,” said Harley.

“But Harley, never mind that! I’ve seen a person on the ship! He’s dropped the sail!”

Harley Smith raised his eyebrows and Elmer Fennel grinned and so it was known that Elmer Fennel was the one who roused the town awake to greet the pirates.