i.
At 5am, Ted’s alarm clock signaled another day had begun. He immediately rolled out of bed, ready to go. As he shaved his grey beard, he remembered the storm that had awoken him during the night. The wind had howled and the tree outside the bedroom window had scratched against the glass. The dog, Maggie, had briefly growled at the thunder. To his sleep-fogged mind, the storm had seemed really intense.
He finished getting ready and walked into the kitchen, flipping on lights as he went. After filling up his mug with coffee, he stood at the kitchen window and looked out at the backyard. It was still somewhat dark, but he immediately knew that something was wrong. He put down his mug and walked out his back door.
He approached the downed fence slowly, stepping over the branches and leaves strewn by the storm. The wind had pushed over the brown wooden fence that had separated his backyard from the adjacent backyard since they bought the house years ago.
For the first time, he was looking past the fence into his neighbors’ yard. It was a little dark because it had more trees than his yard. The grass was a little patchy and dog toys were scattered all around. His neighbors’ back porch had a nice outdoor furniture set that was obviously well used.
He had never met these neighbors before because their house faced the opposite direction. Their front door was on a different street and their paths had never crossed over the tall brown fence. He heard a lawn mower occasionally and people talking. Every once in a while, a dog barked over there, but that was all he knew about them.
Lifting the fence with his foot, he knew that they’d have to replace this whole section. It was probably for the best. The old wood had been decaying for years. Maybe they could get one of those new vinyl fences that you didn’t even have to paint. Ted wondered what something like that would cost.
Checking his watch, he decided he’d talk to the neighbors about it later. He had to go to work.
ii.
That night, Ted came home to find his wife, Nancy, finishing up dinner in the kitchen.
“I guess you saw the fence down in the back?” he asked her, sighing.
“Yeah, I sure did,” she said brightly, bringing a dish out of the oven. “That storm must have been quite something. Have you talked with the neighbors yet about getting it fixed?”
“No, not yet. I thought I’d go talk to them today before dinner,” Ted answered.
“Well, Maggie seems to have made friends with the neighbor dog,” said Nancy, looking out the kitchen window.
Ted glanced out. Sure enough, little Maggie was sniffing a large husky in the neighbors’ yard. He grabbed his red ball cap and walked out the door.
As Ted approached the neighbors’ home from the street, the first thing he saw was a muddy SUV parked in the driveway. It had a large bumper sticker on it with a yellow equal sign on a dark blue background. “Alright… that’s not a good sign,” he thought to himself.
A dark-haired woman answered the door with a smile. It flickered a little bit when her eyes darted up to his red ball cap with big white lettering. She recovered quickly as he started talking, explaining who he was and why he was there.
She shook his hand, introducing herself as Lisa, and then invited him in. It was bright and orange from the setting sun as they walked toward the back door. The large husky walked up to Ted and sniffed his leg. “That’s just Rufus,” said Lisa, “I think he likes your dog. What’s her name?” “That’s Maggie,” said Ted as they exited out onto the porch. Soon they were both gazing down at the ruined fence, talking options.
“Well, I figure I could fix it myself,” said Ted, “But I’m not sure when I’ll have a free weekend to get to it.”
“If that’s the case, it might be better to pay for a replacement,” said Lisa, “But I’m afraid we can’t afford that right now.”
“Well, we can figure something out,” said Ted, “I guess the first thing will be to get this old fence out of the way.”
“Oh sure, yeah,” Lisa responded, nodding her agreement, “I think I have a brother-in-law looking for some scrap wood. Would you mind if we had him come take it away?”
Ted nodded, thinking about how nice a vinyl fence would look here, “No, I don’t have a problem with that. How soon do you think he’ll come?”
Just then a car pulled into Lisa’s driveway. She turned back toward the house but answered, “Oh, I bet he’ll come tomorrow once we tell him.”
The back door opened just as Ted and Lisa reached the porch. Another smiling woman, this one with blonde hair, poked her head out and looked surprised.
“Oh, who’s this?” she said jovially.
“Cheri, this is our backyard neighbor, Ted. He came to talk to us about the fence situation,” said Lisa, “Ted, this is my wife, Cheri.”
Ted hoped that his face didn’t visibly turn the same shade as his hat. The word, “wife” had really caught him off guard. He had never met any gay people to his knowledge. This was a first as far as he knew.
He tried to recover by shaking Cheri’s hand and saying something about his wife badgering him for being late to dinner. He mumbled that they could talk about new fences later. He started to step toward Lisa and Cheri’s house, but thought better of it and turned back toward the downed fence. He quickly walked back across and into his home, not looking back.
Shutting the door behind him, Ted hollered for Nancy. She answered him from the dining room, “What is it, Ted? Dinner’s ready!”
Ted glanced back toward Lisa and Cheri’s house before joining Nancy at the table. “It’s… nothing,” said Ted, looking down at his plate. He straightened up, looked Nancy in the eye and in a business-like voice, said, “The neighbors are going to take out the old fence tomorrow. We’ll talk with them about options for a new fence right after that.”
Nancy, looking slightly suspicious, started dishing out food.
iii.
The next day, when Ted returned from work, he found the back fence completely gone. There was now no separation between the yards and Maggie roamed freely with Rufus. The two seemed quite happy together. They played tug-of-war with toys and chased each other until they were worn out. Then they lay in the sun until one of them was called inside.
Ted and Nancy immediately started looking for replacement fences. After a few days, Ted found the perfect one: tan vinyl and seven feet high. Now he just had to measure it out so he could figure out the cost.
Tape measure in hand, Ted walked out into the backyard. The sun was setting, sending orange light straight into Lisa and Cheri’s yard. Maggie followed quickly behind him, barking to alert Rufus she was coming. Rufus barked in return and galloped toward them.
Maggie and Rufus ran off, beginning one of their games, as Ted measured out the fence line. He was bent over his calculations when he heard someone call out, “Hey Ted!” He looked up and saw Cheri coming down the steps of their porch, smiling.
He straightened up and smiled in return, although perhaps uneasily. “How are you, Cheri?” he said, “I’m out here just measuring the fence line. I think I found a good replacement.”
“Oh, that’s great!” said Cheri, reaching him. “My brother was so excited to get all that scrap wood. Thanks for letting him have that.”
Ted nodded, and smiled a little more genuinely, “It was nothing, really. I-“
Cheri cut him off, “Well, we wanted to thank you for it. And seeing as how we basically share a yard, Lisa and I were thinking we might have a cookout. We’d love for you and your wife to join us.”
Ted thought hard, but couldn’t see any way out of this. After only a split second of hesitation, he said, “Yeah, that sounds great. We can do that.”
Cheri smiled, “Great! How does Saturday sound?”
“Sounds great,” said Ted, and he turned to go inside, almost tripping over Maggie and Rufus locked in a never-ending tug-of-war.
“They sure do get along well, don’t they?” said Cheri.
“They sure do,” Ted said over his shoulder as he hurried inside.
When Ted told Nancy about the upcoming dinner, she immediately peppered him with questions he didn’t have answers to. “Did they say if we should bring something?” “Umm… no.” “Did they give a time for Saturday?” “Didn’t get that detailed.” “Did you tell them about your allergy? “No.”
“Well, I think I’ll have to get the answers myself, then,” said Nancy, as she walked toward the door, “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
Ted nervously watched the game on TV as he waited for her to return. He didn’t know why he was so anxious. Then again, he knew exactly why. The whole thing just made him uncomfortable. To take his mind off things, he pulled out his computer and started calculating the cost of the new fence.
Before long, Nancy came back. She calmly walked into the room, sat down by Ted and paused. Then she said, “You didn’t tell me they were… umm.”
“Yeah, I guess I forgot,” said Ted, glancing sideways at her.
She didn’t say anything for a second, then she caught his eye. A slight smile crossed her face and she turned to look at him, “Saturday will be quite the adventure, won’t it?”
Ted suddenly felt something like relief flow through him. He managed a smile and a chuckle. “Yeah, yeah it will be!” he said, “What are we having?”
iv.
Saturday evening found Nancy and Ted walking across their backyard. Maggie ran out ahead of them to greet Rufus, who was wagging his large tail in excitement. Ted carried a package of hotdog buns. Nancy carried a large bowl full of watermelon.
Lisa and Cheri were out on their porch, firing up the grill and putting dishes on the table. Ted and Nancy walked up to the steps somewhat timidly. Lisa and Cheri each let out a hearty hello, breaking the ice immediately. Ted watched Nancy visibly relax as she handed the bowl to Lisa, who peeked inside and let out a giggle: “Watermelon is my favorite! How did you know?”
Ted relaxed too as Cheri called out to him. “Do you usually toast your hotdog buns, Ted?” she asked.
“Yeah… yeah, I usually do,” said Ted, joining Cheri at the grill and opening up the package he carried.
Ted, Nancy, Cheri, and Lisa talked long past nightfall. The porch lights came on, illuminating the scene with colorful lights. The dogs eventually wore out and settled in under the table, heads resting on shoes. Nancy found that she frequented the same fabric store as Cheri. Ted found that he and Lisa had voted for the same candidate a few years back. All four of them found that they loved to play a certain card game.
The drinks and laughter flowed easily until Lisa looked at her watch and announced it was probably time to wrap things up for the night. Nancy and Ted stood up from the table, helped clean up, and gathered their things. Lisa and Cheri gave them a warm farewell and Ted found it easy to reciprocate in kind. He said, “Next time, we’ll have you over to our place. We’ll have to see which household is better at cards!”
Nancy and Ted closed the back door behind them, still chuckling from the evening. As they cleaned up the kitchen, they saw Cheri and Lisa go inside and turn off the porch lights. Nancy turned to Ted and said, “Weren’t they so nice?” Ted nodded in agreement.
v.
Two years later, Ted grabbed his favorite red hat and called out to Nancy, “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes!” She called back, “I’m just waiting for you!”
Ted switched off the lights as he made his way to the backdoor.
The two of them walked out to the backyard carrying packages and bowls full of food, just like they did every other Saturday.
They walked through the yard and crossed where there was once a tall, brown, wooden fence. Ted paused a moment and tried to remember what the yard had looked like with a fence. He couldn’t recall.
Maggie ran toward Rufus as Nancy yelled out a greeting to Lisa and Cheri. The two were basked in orange light as they looked over, smiling. Ted smiled and picked up his pace.