The Kellers, Continued...

One time, Mr. Keller came inside my grandparent's house to talk about something with Pop Pop. Staring at the unique sight for 27 Autumn Drive, the new visitor, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. The silver-haired old guy I always observed from afar looked the same--only closer, complete with round head, big thick glasses, a long sleeve plaid tee shirt with a puffy orange vest and jeans.

From my spot on the end of the couch, I peered into the kitchen. Pop Pop sat at the island talking to Mr. Keller standing somewhere near the stove. From where I was eavesdropping, I couldn't help overhearing the neighbor's new plans. He wanted to build a garage off the side of his house, out toward my grandparents' side.

Pop Pop wasn't bothered by it in the least. What did it bother him what his neighbor did in his own yard? Apparently Mr. Keller just wanted to run it by him and gauge his opinion.

The next time I heard about the building of the garage, my mom brought it up in the car, on the way back home a few days later.

"Now Nancie and I have to go to some hearing because Grandma doesn't want it built," she said.

"How come she doesn't want him to built it?"

There were a bunch of reasons: loss of privacy on that side of the house (the rose bush side), it would cast more shade in that area, obstruction of the view down the street from the master bedroom window Grandma never looked out of--but now planned on doing every day. Grandma pointed out a couple more things. The shed near the Kellers house had to be taken down to make room for the addition, the illegally built shed that never would have been okayed by town hall. Also, the fact that the Kellers had a garage once, on the right side of their house, like 27 Autumn Drive, that they converted to living space.

"So now they're going to have two driveways?" Grandma complained.

Within months the neighbors did, in fact, have two driveways, their old one, the tar that went right up to the right side of their house, and the new one, the one for their new garage. I thought their house looked good afterwards, but Grandma remained passively bitter, especially when Mrs. Keller stopped chatting with her about the roses or the marigold out front.

After the addition went up, and Mr. Keller stopped acknowledging Pop Pop when he worked in the yard or inspected the garden, I kind of felt bad for Pop Pop. He enjoyed talking with Mr. Keller. That's what guys do, talk about man things. Aside from Uncle Chet, what other guy did he have to talk to in the area? And the garage went up, Mr. Keller got what he wanted. After that minimal amount of fighting, brought on only by my Grandma, Mr. Keller won, what else was there to prove? Did he think Pop Pop was lying when he said he'd have no problem if he went ahead and built it?

I felt bad because I watched Pop Pop in the yard, stuck in an awkward situation, look over at Mr. Keller on multiple occasions and want to talk, like the old days, say some grown-up comment that would spark a conversation about football or fertilizer. Now he was lucky if he got a curt 'hello' in return. Really lucky if Mr. Keller returned a wave.