THE AWFUL, EVIL, VERY BAD MAN (CONTINUED)

A very gruff Voice yelled, "If you don't stop slamming that ____ door,

I'm going to come over there and beat your ___  ____  ___!"

Dede said, "I'm sorry."

The Voice said, "Yeah, you're always sorry."

Dede, thinking it was her neighbor, said, "Is that you, Jay?"

The Voice said, "I'm the owner of this ____ place, and if you don't shut up,

I'm coming over there and beat the ____ out of you!"

Female voices in the house began to call Dede awful names.

Dede said to the Voices, "Happy Thanksgiving!",

scooped me up and we ran in the house.

Dede began to cry. I was worried because I had never seen her cry before.

As a matter of fact, I had only seen crying on TV and didn't much like it.

Then, there was a knock at the door and it was some people from down the way.

Dede told me later that they were the ones who had been standing in the driveway.

Dede opened the door and a man said, "We heard all that. Would you like us to

call the police?"

Dede said that she didn't want that for fear of starting more trouble.

(She told me later that she was afraid the Voice was drunk and might have a gun.)

They went away after first saying that we should call them if we needed them.

They were very kind, but when they left, Dede cried again.

Then the family came over for dinner and Dede told them what happened.

Later, we talked again to the leasing agent and once again he advised us against

breaking the lease. (I didn't know what would happen if you broke a lease, but I had seen Dede

break things and they shattered. I would have been happy to do that if only we could get away

from the Bad Man and the awful Voice and bad words. (continued)