Silent Faces

There are twenty-five houses in the Sack.

Most people on the street are familiar with each other. About half even socialize with each other to various degrees. Most of the others would at least know each by sight.

Then there's the handful of people nobody really knows much about at all.

***

If you drove into the Sack and looked at the first house on your right, you would see one of its unknown quantities. A couple in their late twenties or early thirties lives there.

This couple doesn't seem to have any interest in the Sack at all. Nor do they seem to have much interest in their own house, either. Instead, they seem more focused on what Oscar calls, "doing their thing."

This means doing things like sea kayaking, snowboarding and mountain biking.

***

The couple own a late-model SUV. There's almost always some kind of recreational equipment strapped to the top of it, especially on the weekends.

Oscar says the couple reminds him about a commercial that used to be on television. It was an advertisement for a particular brand of chewing gum. It showed a young couple doing all kinds of exciting, athletic activities together. Before or after every activity, one of them would offer the other a stick of the chewing gum.

Nobody knows if the Sack's couple chews gum or not. They're not around often enough for anyone to find out.

***

The couple moved to the Sack about three or four years ago. When they moved in, they had out-of-province license plates on their car. Apparently, they were from Saskatchewan.

Last year, they had a visitor who stayed with them for the entire summer.

People in the Sack were aware of the visit, even though nobody actually caught a glimpse of the visitor. In early June, a car with North Dakota license plates sat in front of the couple's house. Although it moved sporadically, the car remained on the street until early September.

There might have been more than one visitor, of course. But no one in the Sack could really be sure. The couple continued to be as active as ever. They were rarely noticed when they arrived or departed. Everyone figured the visitor was probably being active with them.

***

Gordon wasn't happy about the car from North Dakota being parked on the street for so long. It wasn't parked illegally, of course, but it rankled Gordon nonetheless.

When he complained to others about the car, more people started paying attention to the house and its occupants. Previously, people gave them only a fleeting glance.

This is when people started to say how aloof the couple seemed to be. Some people noted how they made no effort to even interact with their immediate next-door neighbours.

Elizabeth even spoke out about the sorry state of the couple's front yard. Big Doug observed that most of the grass was dying. He said the driveway cried out for resealing.

***

Of course, the couple remains unaware of these observations. They continue to go snowboarding, mountain biking and kayaking. Even if they were aware of the complaints, they probably wouldn't do anything different.

They're too busy living their lives and, as Oscar said, "doing their thing." And, of course, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

Oscar did, however, make an attempt to interact with the man who lived at the house. He tried to start a conversation, while the guy was tying his kayak to the top of his SUV. Oscar said the guy clearly had no interest in chatting.

Of course, Oscar was wearing his pyjamas at the time. He had walked down to the corner to get his mail.

***

So people are certainly free to "do their own thing."

But that won't stop Sack people from making up their own stories about each other's lives, especially those they know very little about. It just seems like that's what people do in a cul de sac.

At least that's what it seems like in this particular cul de sac.

***

Another of the Sack's unknown quantities can be found several houses down from the active couple. Nobody knows anything about this house or its occupants.

The house used to be owned by a gay couple. One of the men had children from a previous marriage. His kids used to stay with him from time to time. The kids used to play regularly with other Sack kids. This is when the house was a known quantity.

The gay couple moved away and obviously, someone new bought the property and moved in. Everyone agrees that someone moved in. Some people can even say they saw the new owner move in. And there's a car that's parked in the driveway with some regularity.

But no one has any clear idea about who lives in the house or what they even look like. Whoever does live there does a very good job of flying under the Sack's radar.

***

Of course, flying too low under the radar is one way to get attention in the Sack. That's also when people start to craft their new stories.

Oscar says the property could be home to a marijuana grow-op. Weed, however, doesn't agree. He says the place is far too small for such a thing. Suburban grow-ops, he says, need more square footage.

I have no idea about such matters.

***

Every time Oscar's boy, Dorian goes door-to-door with some school or hockey-related fundraising scheme, he asks the boy to pay special attention to the Sack's unknown quantities.

Sometimes this is the only way to improve the authenticity of the Sack's stories about itself.

Of course, learning more about each other has its drawbacks. Sometimes the real stories are far more fantastic than we could ever make up.

***