I almost said no because I wasn’t the coffee-with-strangers kind of guy. But something about the way he asked, as if he half expected me to leave, made me pull out a chair.
“One cup,” I said. “Then I’ve gotta go check on my gutters.”
My neighbor laughed. It was a small, surprised sound.
I almost said no.
We ended up talking for nearly an hour!
Ezra told me about the neighborhood back when there were still cornfields where the elementary school sits. I told him about my life and how I’d moved in, thinking I would only stay two years.
“Funny how that works,” he said. “I told my wife the same thing about this place in 1971!”
My neighbor mentioned a nephew once, somewhere in the middle. Marcus, I think. He said the name the way people say a cousin’s name they used to know, with a little pause afterward.
“Funny how that works.”
“He calls sometimes,” Ezra said. “When he needs something.”
