Freewrite Day 10 - Splinter

Freewrite Day 10 Splinter @mariannewest

I could see splinters of glass in his hair and covering his shirt. He had pounded on the door, and I turned the porch light on and recognized the neighbor from across the street. He was crying and asking to use the phone. I was home alone, but let him in and, in the days before 911, I found the phone number for the police department at the front of the phonebook. He told the officer on the phone that he had been beaten up and they assured him they would send a squad car right over. I was just a kid , and had absolutely no idea what to do for him. He waited on the porch until the squad car arrived.

They were good neighbors. My mom referred to them as the 'bachelor's', and that night was my first realization that they were a couple.
My mom checked in on them after she got home, and assured me that I had done everything necessary and that they had a fight, but would be OK.
After that, I still waved when I saw either of them in the yard, but in our 1960's small town their relationship was an eye opener for me. Mom still dropped off plates of her home-baked goodies, and they came by to borrow tools from dad. The years passed, and the bachelor's moved away, but their ending was not a good one. I saw the newspaper article about the murder/suicide that involved an ax and a hanging, and wished there could.have been another neighbor close by who could have helped with a phone call to the police.