He lived in small town surrounded by coniferous forest and rocky mountains, on the north of Washington state. He was the usual man, who had wife and 3 years old daughter. He worked at home on a remote work, took care about his child and invited the neighbors for backyard barbecue for every weekend. He was a member of the average American family, he lived the similar life his neighbors did and had the usual name – David.
David knew the mystery. He knew about days, moments and ways his neighbours should die. Each time he took the newspaper, postman had left on the porch in the morning, set in the chair near the huge window, covered with curtains, and watched one of his neighbours (the other each time), who should die in a few minutes, pretending to read. Everybody, who became the exhibit of David contemplation, gone in strange ways only in the front of theirs houses: John, who was living in two houses from David’s home, became the victim of piece of slate, which fell down from the roof and cut his head off; Linda, old woman, living in the end of the street, slipped on the porch, although it was dry, fell down and had never came to life; Peter, the teen, who was living with his alone mother in the house opposite to David’s, was killed by lightning in the clear day. Each time David knew somebody would die, but he stayed the viewer, like there was a theatre in the front of his window.
Seemed like David was fortune-teller, but not, the key of mystery was in old small paper notebook, he had found on the attic, when he with his family had moved to this house 3 months ago. He found nondescript notebook, when he was handled the old stuff the previous tenants had left. It was full of scaring stories, the plot of which alarmed brain and heart, devoid of any names; there were only descriptions of each one character (yes, there was only one hero in each story) and dates. Finding notebook, at the beginning David took an interest in the plot of stories, but in a month the interest changed on excitement, he got the idea: everything that had been written there happened with his neighbors, who were described on pages in details.
Having a lot of work, David didn’t open the notebook for a few weeks, he even forgot about it. He was working on the big project and finished it that sunny morning. He was tired and exhausted, because he hadn’t slept for two days. David made a cup of coffee and set in the chair near the huge window, covered with curtains, enjoying the sound of birds’ songs. He closed his eyes, got a comfort position and fell in pleasant thoughts about long-waited holiday, but the awful scream interrupted his calmness. He felt the usual excitement again, remembered about mysterious notebook, he had left on the shelf under small window in the attic. He was too tired to go to the attic to take the notebook, so he decided to dress the role of unnoticed viewer and looked out of window. Woman, who had cried, was standing across the road and was looking in front of David’s house with unspeakable terror in her eyes. This case embarrassed man, he threw the cup on the table and ran outside.
The view he saw David would never forget. He hadn’t read about it in the notebook. Hadn’t read yet. Something, that reminded his 3 years old daughter was scattered on the green grass in front of his house. He couldn’t even imagine 3 years old child would get on the open window in the attic, and moreover, couldn’t imagine the lawn mower in the hands of the gardener would perform no worse than the meat grinder.
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