MY SUMMER SO FAR
July 5
There is heat and stillness, and a car’s been parked in front of my house for two weeks. Not moving. Ever. A black Buick Le Sabre. Maybe a 97 or 98.
Maybe this doesn’t seem odd to you, but it does to me. We live on a quiet street. There’s not much traffic and it’s not often that cars are parked in front of houses. In this neighborhood, people have driveways and garages. They don’t park on the street.
But that’s not all.
But that’s not all.
Something is killing the hedgehogs in my neighborhood. I saw 4 dead ones in the streets this morning while driving my granddaughter Lucy to her summer day camp.
Each one had its head cut off. You could see this plainly. There was blood but no heads.
I never see hedgehogs, and suddenly there they are in the street. With their heads cut off, missing.
Each one had its head cut off. You could see this plainly. There was blood but no heads.
I never see hedgehogs, and suddenly there they are in the street. With their heads cut off, missing.
Have other people noticed the dead hedgehogs and the heat and the stillness and the car parked in front of my house?
Who’s doing this? And why? What harm has a hedgehog ever done anyone?
Why kill a hedgehog?
JULY 6
The black car is still there.
Last night I marked the right, rear tire with some yellow chalk I found in the basement.
I thought this would help me figure out if it had actually not moved.
It hadn’t. The yellow chalk mark is still there on the tire.
I saw one of my neighbors, a new guy, standing in his yard looking at the car. I don’t know his name yet. He’s a skinny guy. He waved me over. Asked me about the car. He said he thought it had been there for three weeks. I said I thought it was two.
He asked if I had noticed the oil spot near the rear tire. I said yes.
He said, that car’s not going any place. You should call the police. That’s what I’d do if it were parked in front of my house.
I said, maybe tomorrow, and then I asked him about the hedgehogs.
I told him I’d been seeing dead ones on the streets around the neighborhood.
Last night I marked the right, rear tire with some yellow chalk I found in the basement.
I thought this would help me figure out if it had actually not moved.
It hadn’t. The yellow chalk mark is still there on the tire.
I saw one of my neighbors, a new guy, standing in his yard looking at the car. I don’t know his name yet. He’s a skinny guy. He waved me over. Asked me about the car. He said he thought it had been there for three weeks. I said I thought it was two.
He asked if I had noticed the oil spot near the rear tire. I said yes.
He said, that car’s not going any place. You should call the police. That’s what I’d do if it were parked in front of my house.
I said, maybe tomorrow, and then I asked him about the hedgehogs.
I told him I’d been seeing dead ones on the streets around the neighborhood.
Had he seen any? He said he hadn’t.
I didn’t tell him the ones I saw were headless. That’s just too weird.
I didn’t tell him the ones I saw were headless. That’s just too weird.
JULY 7
The black car has moved.
It’s been pulled about 20 feet forward.
Where it sat for 2 weeks is a white car. I think it’s the same model, same make. Just white.
It’s in the exact spot. I’m not kidding, not telling you a story. The exact space.
Yesterday, my granddaughter Lucy asked me to play an iPad game with her at the library. It was all about hedgehogs. They were doing cute things and running around a lawn chasing each other and trying to avoid a guy mowing the lawn. I didn’t understand the game at all, what the purpose was, but I played anyway.
You know I kept thinking about the other hedgehogs, the ones in the street.
It’s been pulled about 20 feet forward.
Where it sat for 2 weeks is a white car. I think it’s the same model, same make. Just white.
It’s in the exact spot. I’m not kidding, not telling you a story. The exact space.
Yesterday, my granddaughter Lucy asked me to play an iPad game with her at the library. It was all about hedgehogs. They were doing cute things and running around a lawn chasing each other and trying to avoid a guy mowing the lawn. I didn’t understand the game at all, what the purpose was, but I played anyway.
You know I kept thinking about the other hedgehogs, the ones in the street.
JULY 8
When I woke up this morning, the white car was gone, but that’s not all. A black Ford pick-up is in front of the house now.
I can’t believe it. It suddenly showed up there this afternoon. My wife Linda and I were driving home from dropping our granddaughter off at our daughter Lillian’ s house, and we came up the hill and there it was. Enormous and parked in front of our house.
My neighbor Scott, the stockbroker guy, was outside watering his boxwoods when we pulled into the driveway, and he came up and asked us whose truck it was. We said we didn’t know.
He said, somebody is jerking around with you.
I nodded.
The good news? I haven’t seen a dead hedgehog in a couple of days.
I can’t believe it. It suddenly showed up there this afternoon. My wife Linda and I were driving home from dropping our granddaughter off at our daughter Lillian’ s house, and we came up the hill and there it was. Enormous and parked in front of our house.
My neighbor Scott, the stockbroker guy, was outside watering his boxwoods when we pulled into the driveway, and he came up and asked us whose truck it was. We said we didn’t know.
He said, somebody is jerking around with you.
I nodded.
The good news? I haven’t seen a dead hedgehog in a couple of days.
JULY 9
The hedgehogs are gone. The dead ones and the live ones both. They were everywhere a week ago and today they’re not.
You won’t believe this, but the cars are gone also. The black one and the white one both. The truck is gone too. Like I told you, the black car sat there right in front of my house for two weeks. I chalked its tires so I would now if it moved, and it didn’t, and then it did, and now it’s gone.
A cool wind came through early this morning. I was mowing the front lawn, and I felt it and enjoyed it. For the first time in a week, it felt cool outside. A hired guy mowing the lawn next door — someone I don’t know — saw me standing there enjoying the breeze, and he stopped mowing and raised his hands, as if to say, „Ain’t it something.”
It is.
I’m not so foolish as to think that summer is coming to an end or that the cars and trucks in front of my house are gone or that the hedgehogs won’t be back, but it’s pleasant to think so.
It will help me get through the rest of this long, hot summer.
You won’t believe this, but the cars are gone also. The black one and the white one both. The truck is gone too. Like I told you, the black car sat there right in front of my house for two weeks. I chalked its tires so I would now if it moved, and it didn’t, and then it did, and now it’s gone.
A cool wind came through early this morning. I was mowing the front lawn, and I felt it and enjoyed it. For the first time in a week, it felt cool outside. A hired guy mowing the lawn next door — someone I don’t know — saw me standing there enjoying the breeze, and he stopped mowing and raised his hands, as if to say, „Ain’t it something.”
It is.
I’m not so foolish as to think that summer is coming to an end or that the cars and trucks in front of my house are gone or that the hedgehogs won’t be back, but it’s pleasant to think so.
It will help me get through the rest of this long, hot summer.
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This is my latest column for the Dziennik Zwiazkowy. Please consider leaving a comment at the newspaper’s website.
http://dziennikzwiazkowy.com/guzlowski/moj-letni-pamietnik/
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