Edmund pulled into his driveway and set the parking brake on his car. His first day at ViaTech was about what he’d guessed it would be: shown around the offices, met a lot of his coworkers, filled out a pile of paperwork half as tall as he was. He’d settle in there soon enough.
As he got out of the car, his next-door neighbor passed by pushing a grimy old lawn-mower. Might as well meet them, he thought.
Edmund waved and shouted a few times to get the man’s attention. He looked over, smiled, and released the lever on the handle to let the mower sputter to a halt. He crossed the lawn between them with a smile on his face.
Edmund guessed he was in his mid-fifties, a bit thick in the middle, but not seriously fat, and, while not bald, with very thinning hair, mostly grey.
They shook hands and the man said, “I take it you’re our new neighbor.”
“Yes, my name’s Edmund. Just Ed usually.”
“Robert. Robert Jackson. Nice to meet you. I think I saw a little one running around here.”
“Yes, that would be Cassie. She never stops moving…unless it’s to talk your ear off.”
“Well, I look forward to meeting her too. So where y’all from?”
Y’all, it was going to take a while for Edmund to get used to that one. He wondered how long before he used it himself.
“Maine. I just got a job at a software company down here.”
“Computers? Okay, never liked them much, but you can’t avoid ‘em these days.”
“Yeah, well, that’s probably only going to get worse.” Edmund looked up and down the street. “So I’d like to get to meet some more of the neighbors soon. We’re hoping to be here a good while.”
Robert nodded. “Sounds good. A word of warning though: You might want to steer clear of Simmons over there.” He tilted his head towards the house Cassie had been worried about the other day. “Just bad news all around.”
Edmund looked towards the black man’s house then back to Robert. His smile became a little wooden. “I’ll, uh, keep that in mind.”
He waved and headed back towards the house. I didn’t want to believe it, he thought, but it looks like southern racists are a real thing.
The Mayor of Christ Mountain 
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