The Wrath Of Edward

Everyone on Barrymore St. knew Edward was a sour angry man.  All his neighbors stayed away from him and warned their children to stay even farther away.  Then one day a new family moved into the empty house directly across the street from him.  Right away they became a huge inconvenience to him, having parked their moving van at the end of his driveway, then their shoddy outdated station wagon pulled up in their driveway. 

Edward was livid about their presence, then the kids poured out of their car, he became enraged as he watched behind a few broken blinders. The kids ran around the front yard with their dog, while the grown-ups did all the work of hauling in their belongings to the house. 

In the days that followed, his impatience and irrational hatred for the family began to grow by leaps and bounds. As he watched from inside the privacy of his own home,  he could never pinpoint anything in particular that they did wrong, just that they existed.

Was it because they often forgot to roll their trashcan back in from the curb after pick up, or that the kids ball came rolling out into the street in front of his car after returning from errands? They were just another family like the next. But he waited for his chance, a way to have his anger satiated and justified.

It wasn’t until one morning when the eldest child that looked all of 12 years old, took their dog on a walk along the street and came back up , that the dog tore away from the kids light grasp on the leash, and ran across the street into Edwards yard and took a dump in between the grass and curb. 

As usual, Edward was staring behind his heavily drawn curtains.  Having seen what their dog did, he became enraged and stepped out from his front door to yell and rage at the kid for his pet’s mess.  The kid stared at Edward  unable to understand all the angry words he was spewing out. 

The boy gave up trying to listen then turned to go inside his own house with the dog in tow, leaving Edward alone and still yelling. It wasn’t until Edward went inside his own house did the boy return to the scene of his dog’s crime to clean up the mess. 

That weekend, the boy and his two younger siblings were out in the yard again frolicking with their pet, when the parents soon joined them. The father set up his barbeque pit in the front lawn, while the wife helped him set up a folding table and chairs for the family to enjoy a meal outside.

The parents watched their children play as neighbors came by randomly to welcome them into the neighborhood. The adults warned the parents about their neighbor across the way, strongly urging them to keep a close eye on their kids. They knew Edward was an angry hateful man, but weren’t confident he had a complete sane side to his nature. 

Perhaps, he was just lonely the couple speculated, maybe if they included him in neighborly activities like their barbeque, it might cause him to soothe his unpleasant nature. The other neighbors shook their heads and tried to dissuade the couple and tell them just to leave him be. When Edward saw the congregation in the neighbors yard that then came out once again to rage and fuss that their family activity needed to be moved to the privacy of their backyard. 

“See??” the visiting neighbors confirmed, as they bid adieu for another day and walked home. The husband became angry himself. “Just who does he think he is? He doesn’t own this street, nor is he the governor”. 

“May as well be”, one of the visiting children quipped as he picked up his bike about to leave. 

Then overhead Edwards house, the thunder cracked and lightning flashed angrily mirroring Edwards temper. The 12 y.o of the couple noticed the flashes overhead and burst into a fit of laughter. his friend with the bikes handlebars in hand looks perplexed at why his new friend is laughing till he brings the boy’s attention to where he now points up at the sky. 

“Ha ha, no !!” he says ” he’s bigger than the governor, he’s God almighty!!”. 

The family and the kid on the bike begin to join in on their son’s obvious joke. 

The friend tells the boy “Laters” as he begins to peddle away. The father turns to call out to his kids. “Come on kids, that’s the end of this party. Let’s pickup before the rain starts”. 

Edward is now seething in anger and stomps back inside his house. How dare they laugh at him, how dare they ignore him. Something needs to be done about this nuisance of a family. He stomps upstairs and pulls out his riot shotgun and box of bullets. He loads it and stomps back downstairs into now a dark rainy afternoon. 

The family has long since returned into the safety of their home when Edward shows up at their door and kicks it open. He is confronted by the father and they struggle. A shot is involuntarily fired, and a fire ignites quickly consuming the home. The men continue to struggle as the father yells at his wife to get herself and the kids out of the house. She quickly obeys as her and the kids panically wait for their father to join them huddled in the front yard being pelted by the rain. 

The 12 year old boy has had enough, and breaks from his family’s hold to run back into the house to help his father if he can. His mom shouts her distress behind him. He finds his father and Edward now in a punching match often struggling with one another in a stranglehold. 

The boy hits Edward with a swing of a baseball player, on the back of the head with Edwards own shotgun he found laying by the front door.  It renders Edward unconscious. The father/son team up, to pull Edward out of the house to safety just before the ceiling collapses on the men. 

******

It is uncertain if Edward will live or die, but one thing is for certain. He is no longer a threat to the families that live on Barrymore St. 

As for the now displaced family, news coverage went widespread and a generous outpouring from neighboring communities, helped the family start over.