Schuyler Square Day 103 Steve and Dee Dee Move On

"Guess what? We're moving." Steve waited for his wife's response. It didn't take long.

"Moving? Where? Why?"

"We're moving out of Schuyler Square and back to Chicago. I'd rather put up with the traffic, noise and expense that stay in this house and try to sleep every night with you lying next to me as rigid as a board."

Dee Dee looked at her husband steadily. "Are you serious?"

"You bet I am. I've even found a buyer for the house. We'll make enough money to buy a small condo in the city. It will be better, Dee Dee. This town hasn't been a good fit for us since Day One."

Dee Dee considered what her husband was saying and had to agree with him. Small town living really wasn't what it was cracked up to be. While many of the people they'd met in Schuyler Square were perfectly nice, it was clear that Steve and Dee Dee were never truly going to belong. They'd always be outsiders. At least back in the city everyone else was an outsider too. "Who is going to buy the house?"

"Mike Olson made me an offer. A pretty good one too. We can close whenever we want to."

"Who is Mike Olson?"

"Some guy I met at the coffee shop. His wife works for the Schuyler's. She must have told him about your visit to Mavis the other day."

"And he just offered to buy our house out of the blue? Isn't that a little odd?"

"Honey, at this point who cares? I'm tired of things that go bump in the night, I'm tired of living with a ghost and I want to be able to go out for a cheeseburger at two in the morning of the mood moves me. In other words: I'm tired. So what do you say: are you willing to give up this Green Acres fantasy we both had and move back to where we belong?"

"I do hate to give up on figuring out who killed Mary Austin," Dee Dee fretted.

"Think about sleeping all night long," Steve instructed. "Try to remember what it's like to wake up and not find something smashed in front of the fireplace. Unloading a haunted house isn't always easy, Dee Dee. I say we take the money and run."

"All right," Dee Dee agreed, "but before we move I'd like to have a party for the people we've gotten friendly  with. A farewell party for us. We can invite Mike and his wife too and it can be a kind of housewarming party for them."

Steve looked around the house they had occupied for less than six months and grimaced. "They're welcome to it," he replied.

Schuyler Square Day 78 Kirk Packs His Bags

"So where are you going to live?" Mindy Cooper asked her soon-to-be-ex-live-in-boyfriend, Kirk Chandler.

Shrugging, Kirk tossed more of his clothes into a cardboard box. After the crazy conversation he'd had with his half-brother Tyler, a conversation that revolved around Tyler pressuring him to help murder Tyler's mother's boyfriend, Kirk felt like he was losing his mind. It plain sucked to finally have more relatives only to discover that they were all disgusting parasites. Disgusting rich parasites. Honestly, there were days when it seemed like there was absolutely no justice in the world. "I'm planning on moving from Schuyler Square as soon as I can."

"Where are you going to move?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll go back to Minneapolis or maybe I'll try some place new. Chicago or I might move out west."

Mindy was quiet for a few moments. "I'm sorry it didn't work out here, Kirk. For us and all the jobs and your dad getting murdered and everything."

"Yeah, well, no one ever said that life is supposed to be perfect." His life was so far from perfect at the moment that Kirk truly couldn't imagine it getting much worse.

"I saw you sitting with Tyler at the diner this afternoon," Mindy continued. "What did he want?"

What the hell. Why not share Tyler's lame brain idea with Mindy? Mindy would love to hear that his half-brother was certifiable. She might even want to write an editorial about the rich and shameless. "He wants me to kill Peter Van Husen."

"WHAT! Are you kidding me? He actually came out and asked you to kill his mom's boyfriend? Wow--what did you say?"

"What do you think I said? I told him that he's nuts and to keep away from me," Kirk said.

"Then what happened?"

"Then I finished my coffee, got up and left."

"Didn't Tyler say anything else to you?"

"Not a word. I think it might have been the first time in his life that anyone refused to do what he wanted them to do."

"My, my, my," Mindy remarked, "isn't that interesting? Are you going to go to the police?"

"I doubt it."

"But you were asked to be part of a murder plot! You have to go to the police, Kirk--it's your civic duty."

"Not my civic duty," Kirk responded. "Besides, can you really imagine that moron Tyler actually coming up with a plan to take out Officer Van Husen that would actually work? He'd have better luck planning on being the next Mr. Kim Kardashian."

"Ever heard of dumb luck? That's what the Schuyler family has in spades. He just might stumble on to something that works."

"It's not my problem." Kirk stood up and surveyed the bedroom to see if he'd left anything behind. Nothing. Not so much as a dust bunny. "Well, Mindy, it's been nice but I guess now I'll say good-bye and move on."

"You sound like a cowboy in an old movie starring Henry Fonda. You know, you still haven't helped me get an interview with your mom about the whole haunted house thing."

"That's not her problem anymore either. Remember Steve and DeeDee? They're living with Mary Austin's ghost and good luck to them." Kirk felt like he was tying up all the loose ends of his short, messy existence in Schuyler Square. One good thing: wherever he landed next it had to be better than this odd little town. "I'm through with everything in Schuyler Square, Illinois."

Mindy shook her head. "Never say never, Kirk. One thing I've learned about my hometown--it gets you by the throat and never really lets you go."