The Fence

February, 2008 all rights reserved.
By Wendy Morrow

The full moon reflected onto the ice glazed snow in the back yard. Its light was so bright that the spruce trees cast shadows. A jackrabbit leapt across the field beyond the fence leaving tracks that disappeared in the shadows. Little lumps of dog poop were sprinkled across the yard, frozen into the snow. The old dog, for a moment turned to the hare and considered the chase; she hunched her back and strained once again. Finally satisfied that her bowels might give her some peace, she came back to the door and softly woofed.
Her owner closed and locked the door behind her and they both crept up the stairs, back to bed.
The form of a man leaned against the outside garage wall. He was dressed in black from head to toe but in the full light of the moon his dark shape against the white snow only made him stand out further. He didn’t understand the calendar of the moon and he didn’t consider how bright it might be tonight as he slipped between the houses. He was only concerned with making a score later on. He needed something to sell to the fence who he knew would only give him a tiny fraction of its value but that would be enough to get another rock of crack.
He had seen the electronic collection through the window of the walk out basement in the summer. He was pretty sure this was the house, he had memorized its location from the tractor seat of the golf course lawn mower that he rode all last season. All he needed was to get something slim enough to slip into his backpack and not be noticed.
He opened his jack knife and thumb nailed out the longest blade. He slipped the knife into the crack between the window and the frame and flipped up the latch. He opened the window and slithered inside.
Along the far wall was a bank of equipment for the family’s home theatre system. He drew in his breath as he slid into one of the back leather lounge chairs that faced the massive flat screen hanging on the wall. “Rich bastards” he thought, “They can get another one tomorrow”. He pulled out a component from its oak niche and yanked on the cords to free it, and stuffed the slim unit into his back pack.
Stepping over the sill he eased back out the window. He slipped on something beneath his feet that he couldn't see and fell into a thorny shrub, tearing his pants and ripping his flesh.
It was a long midnight bus ride out to the pawn shop in his neighbourhood. Dabbing at the blood as it dribbled own his leg he was getting anxious to get his fix.
His fingers were shaking as he felt for his crack pipe with one hand and slid the component under the teller window with the other. He waited.
The old fence let his glasses slide further down his nose, “Jesus H Christ, you stupid asshole” he said, “This DVD player is HD, its junk, its worthless, you gotta get a Blue Ray boy. I can’t give you nothing for this. Hey and don’t come in here with dog crap on your shoes again ya smelly bastard."