Chapter 18_ Owe me one

He got exactly the reactions he expected from burnt owners. They all frowned their faces and looked on directly to the house of old Mrs. John.

LSR knew she would be behind her curtains now, taking a peep at the happenings but the tinted glass window the building constructors used in modifying the windows of the house wouldn't let them see her the way she was monitoring their every moment. Funny how she scarcely comes out too. Burnt haven owners better be careful, old Mrs. John wasn't the only one who had her eyes on them, the whole community did. They would be tried and tested for being the new guys in the neighborhood.

" Yes, yes, she made the report and I am glad she did. We need more of her in our neighborhood. What do you say, aye LSR?" Sheriff Blair asked him but he preferred not to answer to that.

It would have been good she made the report in the situation whereby the people who were jumping in and out of his window were burglars or one of the people who wanted him dead. He personally had a dislike for old Mrs.John. He remembered how much she bullied him by monitoring him so much and tagging his every move as dangerous in the past when the incidence at his first year in college first happened.

She knew not what really happened and just like everyone else in the neighborhood, old Mrs. John made him see hell and back and it was not a jolly experience. He hated himself then, he hated everyone else but mostly, he loathed popular Lucia, she was the architect of it all. His miseries and his loser alias, she saw to it and ruined his reputation in the face of everyone. Most importantly, in the face of his brother. There were a whole lot of people he was going to get back to and pay back double their coins. Old Mrs. John was one of them.

Maybe he was cursed, who knows. Even the new people in the neighborhood saw no one else to bully but him. They turned his house to a playground and were taking turns in taunting him. He wanted to tell Sheriff Blair he thought having more people like old Mrs. John around would kill the neighborhood and would then spread to the rest of burnt haven like a plague, attacking and destroying all the peaceful cells in their happy town but just to get back at the burnt haven owners for messing with him, " Aye" he replied sheriff Blair. He then saw how most of burnt haven owners' eyes widened. He shifted in his wheelchair and coughed a little to shake the rising fear of them off of his chest. He had a feeling they would make life hard for him if he made them visit the police station.

Sheriff Blair stroked his overgrown worn out brown beard and a matching fading brown mustache he had and turned to LSR. The man was being nice and doing his duty but LSR thought about how cheap Autumn store was vending shaving sticks now, their Ember sales discount were still on, how much would the man need to purchase the shaving stick and do the needful? Or was it because Sheriff Blair had no wife at Forty-two? Maybe the man was going to die single, nobody would marry a man with a feminine name!

If only a missy was waiting for him at home, she wouldn't have him walk about looking so unattractive. His heart started to pound when he realized he was also single, he had the phobia for women thanks to Lucia or maybe it was not a phobia for women but a phobia for voicing his feelings out to them. He still had plenty of time for change compared to sheriff Blair.

" Now tell me what atrocities these people had committed. Don't be afraid to talk boy!" Sheriff Blair encouraged him, his hand off his beard now and onto his waist.

LSR knew his words would either land burnt haven owners in jail and then court or out of it.

He looked down at Sheriff Blair's boots but he didn't like the sight so, he gazed back up. His eyes went to each of burnt haven owners one after the other and he saw they were patiently awaiting his response to Sheriff Blair.

He wanted to land them in trouble for messing around with him but he reasoned having them owe him one would be better. He cleared his throat. Now, he felt like the important witness in the weekend series he was following back to back on his favorite television station. The one who everyone sought so dearly, the bad guys and the good guys, for his word in court would either save the nation, or destroy it. He felt like that kind of person in this situation, except he wasn't saving a nation.

Seeing burnt haven owners all worked up even though they were concealing it by keeping a straight face gave him joy. " You know I only got back from the hospital, and I have been having an issue with my wheelchair" he began, stole a glance at burnt haven owner and he almost laughed out when Vidal's pointy straight ear stood like soldiers receiving commands from their comrade. He continued to address sheriff Blair "Sometimes, I fall off it while trying to move about or get in my bed" he paused.

Sheriff Blair nodded and urged him to go on. The man was paying rapt attention to everything he was saying.

LSR nodded back at the Sheriff as if he was in some kind of secret coding conversation with the Sheriff minus the one which they were having now. " When I fall, it gets so painful and I groan in pain so, I guess they heard my groanings and their neighborly care and concern got the better of them when they knocked and I couldn't get the door, they resorted to jumping the window" he concluded and burnt haven owners who had been silent all along had their eyes all widened the more.

What was their problem? Why were they acting like he did a bad thing? He just saved them, he expected smiles and chuckles of gratitude not shocked expressions.

" LSR, you saying they came to help you boy?" The Sheriff asked once more and he nodded vigorously.

" They" he pointed at them one after the other, enjoying being in charge " They jumped my window like athletes because they wanted to come help me up"

He wasn't lying totally, the cat eyes girl did say she came to help him but also wanted to know what he knew.

Sheriff Blair who was paying less attention to burnt haven owners before and was giving them a cold shoulder because of Old Mrs. John's report changed his attitude immediately like a chameleon and with a bright smile, he turned to them with outstretched hands " Then, I guess it's more of you generous and most kind people we need in the neighborhood" he began to shake their hands one after the other. When he took her hands, the cat eyes girl, LSR wished he was the one who held those pale delicate hands in his.

Wait!

If he was going to crush on a woman, he better do it right. There was nothing delicate about this lady here, she was a criminal, she and the rest of her family, and once he caught them red-handed and discover the secret they were hiding, he knew they had a secret, it was a dirty one. Too dirty that they mistook his actions as him knowing about something and even went extra mile by jumping his window trying to know what he knew. Nothing, that was what he knew but the day he uncovers the missing piece of the puzzle, he would make the proper report and they would pay for looking down on him.

He promised himself the day he was leaving the four walls of the hospital that he was going to come back as a new person and be LSR with good looks no more.

The black amongst burnt haven owners dared gave the Sheriff an order, he knew those people were in the least bit scared about going to prison " Please do tell old Mrs. Eagle to stay off of our business. I hate neighbors who poke their old noses in my business" he stated and the dominance in his request got to even LSR himself.

The Sheriff saw the anger in his voice " Oh, I'm sorry about the disturbance but you have to pardon old Mrs. John, she is but a bored old woman who wants the best for this neighborhood. Trust me, she meant no harm" he laughed awkwardly trying to lighten the black burnt haven owner's mood but the man did not return the smile.

What a grumpy black stack of flesh!

Sheriff Blair then turned to LSR " Stay safe boy and don't forget you are wanted by the force once you have some days to rehabilitate, okay?" he said sternly now as if he wasn't the one who was smiling before. Did the sheriff also think he was involved in some shady deals?

" Now, excuse me people " he finished, addressing all of them now, and walked to his recently changed police car and zoomed away, making sure to blare his siren all the way back to the station.

It was the fault of the government for changing his old mercury van that could hardly take him about before to this new SUV. Sheriff Blair wouldn't allow the neighborhood rest with his siren ever since!

" Now, how can we repay you..!" a cheerful voice coming from burnt haven owners removed his attention from the receding Sheriff Blair's car and to the burnt haven owners.

It was a woman who should be in her early forties. He had seen her standing beside a man who should equally be in his early forties side by side. All along, she had been quiet and now, she was asking how to repay him. At least, one grateful and smiling one among these bunch of grumpies.

" You know what?" she continued when he hadn't given her a reply " our house is still in a kind of mess now, we are not done unpacking but by tomorrow we should be done. Come over for dinner tomorrow, we would be glad to have you" she finished with the big smile still in her face.

"What?!"

"Luna!" the rest of burnt haven owners fired at her.

Those ungrateful people! He just saved their asses and they wouldn't even have him over in their house for dinner. Not that he wanted their food too, what if they were planning on poisoning him?

Luna, that was the name of the beautiful woman with a chocolate long layered bob hairstyle and an impressive thoughtful bright eyes. She was forever smiling and that only made her already pretty face prettier. Too bad she was old enough to be someone's mother and she seemed married to the man standing beside her whose hands she wouldn't leave alone.

" The boy did help us, having dinner with us is not bad. Let's get to know our neighbors" she patted the black grumpy one, she seemed not to be afraid of him. How bold of her!

If the man gave him a frown of his face, LSR was sure he would shrink to the ground.

To his amazement, the grumpy man turned to LSR " Come but don't come alone" he said.

Good, coming alone might make him sick anyway. He would definitely beg Duncan to go with him, LSR concluded to himself but the man dropped another blow.

" Come with answers, I will have my eyes on you " he finished and walked back into the gates of burnt haven and so did all of them. They followed the grumpy man suit, except for the cat's eyes girls.

What did she want now?

" Thank you, " she said almost immediately the others were out of sight.

Yes, she better be grateful. She was one of the culprits. " You're welcome, now you owe me one" LSR replied to her and she smiled gaily.

Her smile carried her cheek fat up and they almost collided with her eyes. Again, her dried lips called on to him, and their whispers were words of seduction.

What in the world was this girl doing to him and why was her mere presence driving thoughts into his mind?

Perhaps, she was using Ink's demonic face powders too, maybe that's why.

Now, he couldn't help but reprimand himself for acting like the religious gurus who termed ink demonic.

His hatred for ink was directed at the fact that they changed Zakariah, he wanted his big brother back.

Where was Zakariah now in reality? Zakariah was nowhere to be found, he should have mentioned it to Sheriff Blair.

" Tell us whatever you want as compensation, we will do anything you say" Cat eyes girl say to him and his attention returned back to her.

" Ohh" he nodded " Anything?" He asked her tauntingly but she appeared serious.

" Anything" she repeated.

What if I say I want you? He said in his mind, reproaching himself almost immediately for thinking that.

" Rune?!" Someone shouted from burnt haven and LSR turned to the direction the voice came from, it was the black grumpy man.

Cat eyes girl groaned and.. " I have to go now" she said to him and jogged to burnt haven.

" Rune?" he found himself calling and she answered the name by stopping in her tracks and turning to him.

" You called?" She asked him.

His hands were on his wheelchair wheels now " Rune, that's your name?" He asked her.

"Yes"

" Do you use ChatMe?" He asked. He wanted to keep on talking to her. If she was on ChatMe it would be better as they could talk more on there and who knows? She might end up liking him.

" What's that?" She frowned.

Yes, what was he expecting?

When he was close to getting closer to a woman, he always ends up getting disappointed.

But who doesn't use ChatMe these days?

"Never mind but your name is Rune?" He inquired again.

" It is Rune" she affirmed and went into burnt haven's gates.

Rune, her smile would make him betray all the promises he made to himself about getting back at burnt haven owners.