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Who am I to argue with her?
What the hell is that banging noise? There it is again. It needs to stop.
“BARK! BARK! BARK!”
I instantly wake up, as Pepper never barks like that. Sitting up, I take in my surroundings, and everything comes back to me, and I smile.
I look over and see Kate is starting to stir, too. “What is that noise?”
“My question exactly. I’ll go see what it is. You stay here.” I lean down and kiss her forehead and then look around for my jeans.
“Kate? You home?” Someone from outside the bedroom window calls out. “Kate?”
“Oh god. That’s Gladys.” Kate grumbles.
Thankfully, the curtains are pulled tight, or my new friend Gladys would have gotten quite the show. “Who’s Gladys?” I ask as I throw my shirt on.
Kate gets out of bed and grabs her robe from the closet. “One of my neighbors.” She tightens the belt on the pink robe. “Coming, Gladys.”
“I’ll meet you at the door.” Gladys yells back at her.
I follow Kate out of the bedroom to the living room and see Pepper jumping up and down to meet whoever is at the door. At home, we don’t get many visitors. The house is too far back from the road. If you’ve made it to my house, either you were invited or you’re lost.
Kate pulls the front door open, and we see about thirty neighbors standing in the yard. “What’s going on, Gladys?” Kate asks, shocked.
“Well, we heard what happened, and we’re all…” Gladys gestures to the other neighbors, “just so shocked that someone would do such a thing.”
Kate’s got a death grip on the top of her robe. “Thank you, Gladys.” Then she raises her voice so the others can hear. “Thank you to all of you. I appreciate it, really, I do.”
I watch as some neighbors nod and give Kate a sad smile.
“I’m not done.” Gladys says. “Mr. Phillips’ son told him, who then told Betty, who then announced it at this morning’s walk as we went around the neighborhood… you know how it is…”
Kate nods and smile, “I do.”
“Anyway, none of us, and we did a poll, and none of us knows how to do that internet thing where you pay… you know, when someone needs something…” Gladys turns to the others, “John, what’s that thing called again?”
John just shrugs.
Gladys turns back to us. “He’s no help.” She snaps her fingers, “Dang it. What’s it called again, you know, where you donate money to someone?” Gladys looks at me standing behind Kate. “Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“You mean crowdfunding?”
“Yes! Crowdfunding.” Gladys turns back to John. “John, it’s called crowdfunding.”
John gives her the thumbs up.
Gladys turns back to us, “Anyway, none of us knew how to do that on the internets, so we took up a collection, and, well… here.” Gladys hands Kate a check. “We want to donate five thousand dollars to the rebuilding of your shop. Plus, we all want to help out at the fundraiser next weekend. We’ll all either donate time or bake some goodies to sell. Don’t you worry, Kate. You’ll have your shop back in no time.” Gladys has a smile from ear to ear.
Kate’s holding the check like it’s about to explode while shaking her head. “What are you talking about, crowdfunding and a fundraiser?”
Gladys laughs, “You should talk to Grace. She’s been a busy beaver today. She’s got the chamber of commerce involved and the whole town is in on it, too.”
Kate’s speechless, so I jump in. “You said Grace set all of this up online?”
Nodding, “Yep. Her and your employee, Chloe.” Gladys answers to Kate even though I’m the one that asked the question. Then her eyes widen when she takes in what Kate is wearing and our sex hair. “Oh my, Kate. I interrupted you two, didn’t I? We’ll go.” Gladys turns to the crowd. “We need to leave. We interrupted them while they were having relations.”
“Oh God,” Kate whispers, and I smirk. Kate’s face is a pretty shade of pink.
