The shiny, new, black automobile sitting in the middle of Walter P.’s front yard was the talk of the little neighborhood. It was just there one morning, no one had heard it come in. The gossip was buzzing… Walter had squandered his life savings on this now cold, shiny, black unnecessary luxury item of the rich.

Walter did not emerge until almost noon that morning a sign of the times, now Walter was not only thought of as extravagant but also lazy, to boot. Walter made two or three trips around the automobile kicked the tires a few times, got down on his knees and looked under it, then opened the front compartment and stuck his head inside. Then Walter closed up the front compartment. Opened the door and got inside and made some adjustments and got out with a crank of some sort and walked around to the front of the automobile and inserted the crank into a hole then gave it a hard crank and Pop Pop Pop and then it was just purring. Walter got back in and drove off down the street. There were people in the yard, standing on their porches and peaking through their windows. Yes… now ol’ Walter was creating quite the stir driving down the street waving at the crowd as if he were the grand attraction in the fourth of July parade. When Walter was out of sight the neighbors begin to gather in little groups, animatedly talking with a lot of head shaking and frowning.

About the time the little groups had broke up and gone back inside, here came Walter just a putting down the street and back into the yard. This time Walter made a few attempts to get the automobile exactly centered over the side walk going to his front door then to make sure the door would open. Satisfied He turned off the motor and got out with a sack of what appeared to be groceries and a loaf of bread. He took these into the house and then returned and retrieved another sack and set off back inside. Had Walter been listening, he would have heard a neighbor say ” Hell he didn’t need to use that thing to fetch two little sacks of groceries, such a damb waste!”

Late that evening Walter again appeared in the yard, this time he had some paper and a pencil and walked around the automobile several times making some notes. Then he sat in the grass and drew a detailed picture of it. He did this from several different angles. when it begin to get dark Walter brought out a lantern and his tool box and some wooden blocks then sure enough Walter, true to form begin to disassemble the brand new automobile.

By daylight the next morning there was pieces strung from one side of the yard to the other. There was not two pieces that were still connected together with a bolt. There seemed to be an eerie silence, for it to be Monday morning. A hush had fallen on the little neighborhood as they silently waited on Walter to see the strange happenings that were sure to follow his arrival on the scene.

Then of a sudden the front door opened with a bang! and Walter stepped out with his lunch pale in his hand whistling in his usual manner, walked right through the scattered parts and set off down the street on his usual route to work and when he turned the corner at Ave. E he was out of sight, not once did he look back at the scattered remains of his newly purchased automobile. If he had, he would have noticed that all the windows had at least one corner of their curtains pulled back and heads stuck to the windows . The whole neighbor hood seemed to be holding its breath as they witnessed this most horrible atrocity committed by Walter P.. Yes, it appears that like His dearly beloved mother Walter had gone off the deep end. It was just a matter of time until they would come to take him away, just as they did that Summer day when the boys mother was finally taken to the asylum for the insane.

To be Continued