note books

The big man who lives next door is called Stanley. He stands six foot six tall and weighs more than three hundred. He looks like a retired wrestler. He walks on the balls of his feet, light and smooth like Jackie Gleeson used to dance.  Stanley lives with his wife Dona and his grandchildren. Nathaniel is a mixed race boy and Alisa is growing up fast becoming a woman. Their mother is there sometimes but she lives across town with her latest boyfriend. Stan and Dona  tend her children because it’s better that way since their daughter has some issues. When they first moved in I was a little shocked because they were not our kind of people at all. It seemed like they’d dropped in from some hillbilly community or maybe a trailer park. They were loud and always had a cigarette in their mouth and the German Shepherd was usually on a chain out back; sometimes cowboy music played on the radio and Stanley was frequently under a car fixing something or other. Once he strung a heav...