Man of the House

Earlier this week--maybe Monday or Tuesday--I was fixing myself a late lunch, just before two o'clock, when I heard a big racket coming from between my house and Dawn's house. It sounded like somebody was dropping rocks.

Maybe it's someone trying to break in over there, I thought, and went outside in my socks to investigate. I poked my head around the corner, and there was Joey, stacking bricks up along the basement window.

"Joey," I called, not too loudly.

He still jumped. "You scared me."

"You scared me, too. That's why I came out here."

"Oh."

"What are you doing?"

"Somebody's been trying to break in our house." He looked at me sideways, and said even more quietly, "I think it's Yup-yup." He's seen Yup-yup watching when people go in and out of his house.

"Well, the first thing you guys need to do is lock that front gate at night before you go to bed."

"We do!"

"No, somebody isn't," I told him. "Because people ring my doorbell at all kinds of hours and I lock my front gate at night. Since your dad took the fence down, they cut through your yard and come over here. It's driving me crazy. Could you tell your mom she has to be really super-careful about that, especially now?"

"OK," he said. He went back to stacking bricks against the basement window, and I went back to lunch.

I guess he has to take on the security detail. He's 11 years old, but he's the man of the house now.