For a while , every time we were on the porch , Mr. K came out of his door to sit on the porch and listen to our activities . It began to spook us quite a bit . Even in our fear , our curiosity urged us onward to spy on him .
When Mr. K sat on the old car seat next porch over , we each took a turn at the knothole in the wooden partition look catch glimpses of his feet or knees , then turn to each other and whisper "he's there ...ssh..." . As if the one inch thickness of the wall kept our conversation just our own . Over and over, we crept to the knothole and looked again .
Mr. K. put an end to it finally by simply having his eye pressed to the knothole when we went to peek again . Nothing is as surprising as another eye looking back at you . However , it didn't cure us of spying ...just peeking through the knothole .
The next time Mr. K. came out on his side of the porch , he was ready for us . This time we chose to take the plunge and actually look around the partition fully at him . Working up the nerve , we finally raced to get it over and done with . As we leaned around , we met Mr. K. up close and personal.
On the other side Mr. K had put his bald head forward at our eye level ; was moving his protruding ears back and forth ; had his penetrating eyes wide open , and had pushed his false teeth forward out of his mouth a ways . That is the face we saw just inches from our own as we rounded the wall . The only thing we left on the porch was our screams as we ran for cover in the house . There , we broke into peals of laughter , the laughter that can only come after a good scare . Like in a crowded theatre at a horror movie . When you laugh at having been manipulated into startle response .
We no longer spied on Mr. K. after that . Not because he had scared the 'crap' out of us , but because he could not hold back his own laughter at our reaction. That was the first vocalization of any kind that we had ever heard from him . It made him human and 'alright' .
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