Their new neighbors, Fred and Lacey had taken some time out of their busy retirement to help out a bit with clearing out the debris. In Lacey’s case, “helping” was sitting at the makeshift kitchen table and educate Sandra on the most interesting gossip of the neighborhood, which mostly turned out to be involving pet owners and unfortunately timed bowel movements. Sandra sighed as she tore off another swath of wallpaper, nodding her head but avoiding actually looking at her neighbor so that she could roll her eyes in peace.

“So Mr. Kroger absolutely refuses to apologize, even though that animal completely ruined Mrs. Danielson’s entire flowerbed! It’s as I was saying, he -” She paused for a moment and put down the coffee mug she had been sipping coffee out of for the last half hour. “Oh, my stars!” she exclaimed.

“Oh your what?” Sandra replied, turning away from the wallpaper.

“My dear, look!” The older woman pointed, holding one hand over her mouth.

“What, the wall?”