Garage Sale

We found a plain white paper flyer in our mailbox today reading, “Ready. . .? Set. . .? To join in the fun?” Our neighbor Chris, who lives across the street, has been planning a street wide garage sale for weeks and must have decided these catchy flyers were all that was left to draw us in. He’s 60-ish and tends to blurt out demands in place of conversation. Socially we’re not horribly close but like catch up with one another a few times a week from across the street, which is how the garage sale invitation first arrived. I was emptying the trash when he shouted to me, “Christian, we’re doing a garage sale. It’ll probably be next week so make sure you’re ready.” It was clear he meant the “we” as in you and I.

Chris means well and is a fantastic neighbor but tends to forget simple boundaries, like a shut door. We first learned this a summer or two ago when it seemed he needed to borrow a tool. In his defense, he did give a quick knock before letting himself in while frantically shouting my name, “Christian, Christian, I need to borrow a pipe wrench.” When he didn’t find me in the living room he moved to the dining room followed by the kitchen, which was where Linda met him. Caught him, really. I would have liked to see the look on her face but was in the basement and missed the entire thing.

With the arrival of today’s flyer I’m worried if we don’t participate he’ll come knocking again. And we all know what that means.