What do you want with her?" [4th installment]

continued from Dec. 22nd post............

Life was becoming painful living near people that try to control so much. Every thing must go the way it is prescribed for you, or you will be made to feel uncomfortable, disobedient, punished; so be it. The Burlyboys' have always felt that they were different, rebellious, a little strange, but still likable, and not to be told what to do or think! This was what brought them so close. The way they related to each other, a bond. Everyone saw it, and made comments; How well matched they seemed to be, yet so different. Theirs was a relationship of true friendship and love.

And the Blatzs' wanted the boys' to know that befriending Sally was not going to be permitted. The boys' felt that the need to Sally was worth Cecil and Maggie's disapproval. Sally was used to being alone, but not neglected. This was an older woman, widow, living out in the desert, with not much going on, unless Cicil and Maggie wanted something; not Sally's friendship, but material items. And the boys liked her. "She's a kick, a little odd, she can be crusty, just like us."
The Boys knew that they were not following Cecil and Maggie's wishes. Maggie made sure that her feelings were known. Now being a male couple became an issue, and some of the referrals that the Blatzs' had given, now cancelled. Downright rudeness was an art Miss Maggie did well, with no pretense to hide it. Cecil became cold too. You could look at him and see he is the calculating type. The boys were not following the orders, as others have done so far.

The Blatzs' behavior told the Burlys' that something was fishy with them and Sally. One day, one of the boys was sitting on Sally's porch with her, Easter had just passed, and Sally was asking why the boys were not at Cecil and Maggie's Easter Sunday? "Everyone was there and it was very awkward that you guys we not there. People knew, something's going on" The Blatzs' made sure that the boys knew that they would be excluded. That day on the porch, Cecil walked over to Sally's and looked at the burlyboy, then turned to Sally and said, "Sally you shouldn't let him come up here. He's a busy-body; I want to talk to you inside". Sally and Cecil went inside the kitchen, the Burlyboy stayed on the porch and could hear voices being raised. Cecil came out and scurried right passed him. Sally came out, angered, and said "that wife of his is really something". Sally told the burlyboy that she had asked Cecil why the boys were not invited? Cecil said, "that's my wife, I can't control her". "I've got duct tape, you tape her mouth shut, or I will," Sally laid into him; "she totally controls you!" And he had to back down, he said he would go down to the boys' and apologize for his wife.

The next day Cecil came calling on the boys, and tried to make up for obviously shunning them. The boys responded by saying that they did not care to come to any Blatz's parties, that Maggie and his behavior was so strange from when they first met, and that the strange behavior all started when the boys met Sally. "Is that it?" "You don't want us to know Sally?" "Sally has told us that you control all of her finances and get her mail, even though she has asked you not to." "She thinks you might be keeping stuff from her." "You picked up the mail, one day when you Maggie, and Sally, were in the car together, and you handed Sally's mail to your wife, not Sally." "Maggie went through it and gave some to Sally." "Doing that upset Sally!" "She also thinks that you are charging her allot for her prescriptions which you pick up." "She is afraid to say anything to you because you are all she has." "This is why you keep people from her!" "You and your wife have chased off her friends." "She has nobody, nobody but you!" He tried to say that isn't so, but that is all he could say, because it was so. He could not back it up. The burlyboys told him that they would be looking into things, and that Sally's stuff better be in order. He mumbled that, "it will be," and left with his tail between his legs. "We are not thieves," is the last thing he said.

The boys were talking about this with friends, when one of the friends said that he was just reading about this sort if thing in the paper, and that he would send the article to them. It arrived and the story sounded similar. They told Sally that they were thinking of calling Adult Protective Services, she said, "go ahead". The woman from Protective Services called Sally and set up a time to come see her. Sally called the boys and said that she would call them when she got there. That day when Sally called, the Burlys walked up the hill to Sally's, went inside and got a scary story, and a funny one too. Turns out the woman accidentally went to the wrong house, knocked on the door and Maggie answered. "Hi, I am looking for Sally Neathery." "WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH HER?" Maggie screamed at her. "I am from Adult Protective Services. I need to speak with her."

............to be continued