Ian pulled his favorite pair of sweats on and found an old wadded up tee shirt. He knew there were a pair of old sneakers somewhere as he figured he’d get really dirty trying to pull down that old gate. That was his goal for the day.
Aunt Hil had told him to always set a goal every morning, and at night before going to bed surmise how well he had reached that goal. It didn’t have to be complicated, just attainable. Today, it was figure out what to do about that nasty gate in the middle of all that perfection.
It was still sort of shocking to see that anywhere that he turned in his bedroom he could see his reflection from various angles in the glass doors, his thighs when he squatted, and his butt in another. They were almost like mirrors. He took a good look.
“I need to find a gym sometime soon” he thought.
He slipped on the sneakers he finally found and stepped out to the balcony. That’s when he noticed a man in a pair of shorts and barely buttoned up shirt standing over his pool skimming something out of the water. The guy was quite a bit older than he. Very tall he thought and had close cropped salt and pepper hair.
Like a territorial dog he once knew of, without hesitation, Ian was determined to find out who was on his property and headed straight for the balcony stairs that lead down to the patio. He had gotten halfway down the landing when the guy looked up and smiled.
“Hey there, fella!” the man said in a voice he almost but not quite recognized.
Ian’s anger and curiosity ceased when it dawned on him. “Are you the pool boy?” He asked.
The man laughed and leaned on the long white pole. “I never thought I’d enjoy saying this, but I think I’m a little old to be a pool boy.” He laughed and slapped his muscular bare thigh. As Ian approached him he stuck out his hand, “I’m your neighbor.”
“Oh.” Ian said embarrassed as the man took his hand and gave it a confident shake.
“My name’s Colton. I live over there.” He pointed with the other hand to the row shrubs and trees to the left of the pool.
“Ian”, he returned. It was nice to meet a neighbor but his mind was full of questions. “Uh, nice to meet you, but if your not the pool boy, what are you doing?”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d moved in yet, Miss Elizabeth left so quickly. She just stopped by long enough to say so long and that she’s sold the place to a nice young man she was sure we would like.”
“How nice. But that still doesn’t explain…” Ian motioned to the strainer.
“Oh sorry, Miss Elizabeth was always kind enough to let our boys use her pool. In return they always kept it clean for her. Did ever since they were old enough to get wet.”
There was something very familiar about Colton’s speech patterns, but Ian couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“They’re grown now, me and Tippy, that’s my wife, spent most of our time just the two of us, a long second honeymoon, if you catch my drift.” Colton nudged him, with that wink wink male bonding nudge. “Our boys still live at home, the youngest just finished college. They’re away for the weekend, but will probably show up here in a day or two, so I thought I’d clean it up in case you hadn’t moved in yet.”
“Well, uh….thanks…” Ian said, but it was beginning to dawn on him. It was almost there.
“Since you’re here, I’ll tell the boys that they need to come and talk to you before they just hop right in. Hope Jesse bothers to come in the house first. When he comes home he usually just stops here first and jumps in clothes and all.” Colton laughed a deep, suddenly recognizable, laugh.
Ian’s eyes got big and the memories just flooded back. “I know you…you’re…you’re Johnny Sayles, Small Town Private Eye!”
“I used to be.” The man actually blushed. “That was a long time ago, but it bought me a good life for my Tippy and the boys.”
Ian shook the man’s hand again, “Man, Mr. Colton Shores, it is so good to meet you. Growing up, you were my hero.”
“It was a long time ago, but every once and a while someone still remembers.” He blushed again.
“Don’t you act any more?”
“Aw, I made enough from that show that I don’t have to if I don’t want to. Once and a while something comes along that interests me. It wasn’t a great show, but ran long enough to where I could have the privilege of being a little choosy about the rest of my life.” Colton went back to skimming the pool.
“Man oh man, my neighbor is the Colton Shores. I wish I could call my Uncle and tell him. He’d finally be impressed.”
“Well give him a call. I’ll even talk to him and tell him what good buddies we are.” He offered.
“Thank you sir, but my Uncle passed away. I’m sure he couldn’t hear the phone ring over the flames and sinners screaming for mercy.”
Colton laughed that big hearty laugh again. “You’re funny. I like that, but you’re gonna have to cut the sir nonsense and call me Colton or Colt, my friends call me Colt.”
Ian was thrilled. “Sure thing, Colt.” Then the second dawning happened. “Uh, Colt, why do your boys use this pool? Surely you have one of you own.”
“Oh, yeah.” He smiled as he emptied the skimmer into a small trashcan. “But you know how kids are, afraid they’ll get caught skinny dippin’ by their Mom. Little rascals always jumped out of their clothes every chance they got. Course as they got older they didn’t want Mamma to see, like she never diapered um or wiped their butts.”
Ian nodded, understanding.
“Miss Elizabeth and Mr. Herman always loved it when they came over and didn’t seem to mind that they’d get nekkid and bring their girl friends over late at night. They said it never bothered ‘em. Made ‘em feel young again just knowing that youth was frolicking around the backyard. They were great people. We’re sure miss them”
“I only met her briefly, but she seemed nice and determined I buy this place. She seemed in a hurry to go live with her grand daughter. I’m sure I’ll hear from her soon, everything isn’t technically legal yet.”
Colt cocked his head to one side and squinted his right eye, a trademark gesture that had made him famous, “That’s a little odd.”
“I thought so myself, but she made me a deal I could not refuse, especially once I got a look at the place.” Ian turned and gazed at what he still could not quite believe was his. “We signed some initial paperwork and she left that afternoon, took her to the airport myself. It all happened so fast, like it was meant to be. I moved what few things I had in last weekend.”
“Hmm…” he pondered. “Don’t mean to sound like a small town private eye, but you must have heard something wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“Miss Elizabeth doesn’t have any relatives, or at least none that we know of. Tippy and I have lived next door to her and been like family for over fifteen years. Course she’s 92, and we were getting a little worried when on more and more occasions she’d talk about yesterday like she was there.”
“That is a little odd,” Ian thought, “but I know for a fact that I put her on a plane to Ohio.”
“Yeah, that’s were she told us she was going. Said she had found a little assisted living place where she could live out the rest of her time without having to worry about being a burden to any one.” Colt shook his head. “Tippy and me felt so bad about that. We always thought of her as family, and told her we wanted her to stay that we wanted to help take care of her.”
“But she said no?” Ian asked and Colt nodded in agreement.
“She did promise she’d keep in touch and that if she ever needed anything she’d call. Hell, Tippy cried like a baby all day and told her she’d drop everything and come out to wherever Miss Elizabeth was if she ever needed anything.” Colton looked like he could almost cry himself. “Such a fine woman. So was Mister Herman. Me and Tip figure that sooner or later she will need looking after, and we promised ourselves that we’d do it, whether Miss Elizabeth liked it or not.”
“I didn’t have many women in my life. She kind of reminded me of what little I remember of my grandmother.”
Colton laughed. “Hope you didn’t tell her that, she’d kick your ass. She was nobody’s grandmother. Reese, my oldest, called her that one time, and I never saw her face get so blood red in my life. She insisted that the boys call her by her first name, and out of respect we all added the Miss. She seemed to like that. She was a firecracker.”
They looked at the pool water in silence for a while. Finally, Colton rubbed his nose with his shirt tail and turned to Ian. “So have you ever had a pool before?”
“Had a mud hole in the crick once before Uncle Nate found it and ripped down the dam we’d made.”
“Well, let me show you what you need to do….”
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