Joe's Discover (Formerly Known As The Late Night Walk)
Posted On 10/26/2006
Please forgive the lack of formatting. It is tough when using copy and paste.
JOE’S DISCOVERY
“Bella, Bella wake up!” Joe shakes his wife firmly. She bolts upright startled, but hasn’t time for more than grabbing her robe as Joe rushes her out to the darkened living room.
“Joe…Wha..” She pauses to yawn, “What’s going on?”
Joe pulls her to the large window overlooking the street. Bella struggles into her robe and drops to a kitchen chair that has been moved in front of the window. Joe runs his hand over his thinning grey hair as he sits in a matching chair. “Ready?” Joe slowly opens the vertical blinds halfway.
“Now, watch!” Joe says and points down the street.
Bella rubs her puffy eyes and squints in the direction of his finger. “It is past 2 am Joe, it’s dark. There isn’t anything to see. Please, let me go back to bed.”
Joe peers intently down the street and then at his wrist watch. “Just a couple more minutes and you’ll see.”
They watch down the street. Bella redoes a couple of the loosened rollers in her hair. Joe whispers at her to stop moving, or she might be seen. Bella stops folds her arms and frowns.
Just then, movement can be seen under the streetlamp halfway down the block. Bella frowns again and leans closer to the window. “Who is out walking at this time of night?” she says. She slides forward on the chair.
“It’s that lady from that house across the street. I’ve been watching her, every night for a week now.”
“Mindell Jacobs? You’ve been watching her? Heavens, Joe, you’ve been spying!” Bella smiles at him and pokes him teasingly.
“Just watch!” he says.
The woman then steps out of the shadows and struts awkwardly down the sidewalk. In one hand she clenches an insulated mug and her other hand is held delicately out, her palm down, fingers splayed.
“What does she have on her feet?” says Bella.
“That’s why I woke you. I swear she does this every night about this time. Leaves down the block one way and returns back up the other.” Joe waves his hand to his left and then his right. “Always wearing the same thing. Big baggy sweats and those gold shoes.”
“They’re called stilettos.” Bella rests her forehead on the window and squints, “An expensive pair if I am seeing it right. I wish I had my glasses, but they’ve got to be at least five inches high. Is she wearing any make-up? Her hair looks like it is pulled back but I can’t make out if she might have another set of clothes underneath. Maybe our little mommy across the street has a side job we don’t know about.” Bella grins at the idea.
“Hell, I don’t know anything about make-up, but she doesn’t look like any hooker I’d pick up.”
Bella looks at Joe considering. “You’d pick up? Hmm?”
“You know what I mean. Her hair is a mess, and the way she holds that hand is more like she’s walking into my mother’s parlor than a strip club.”
“You said she does this every night?” Bella says.
“As far as I can tell. I noticed it for the first time last week. I was watching my shows like I always do ‘til I can sleep. There was movement out the window. I opened the blinds wide to see what it was. There she was prancing down the sidewalk. I thought maybe she saw me but hell; she’s kept it up all week. So I guess not.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Bella says, “It looks like she might just fall over in those shoes.”
“You would have believed me if I mentioned it over lunch at IHOP?”
Bella laughs. “Well, I tell you all I see going on out there.” She gestures to the houses lining the street. “I told you all about the ambulance over at the Mitchell’s place last week. I told you about Rachel Crow’s son going into rehab even though I swore I’d tell no one. I told you about those awful Stilwell boys and how they were throwing rocks at each other, right there in the street. You always believe me don’t you?”
“You told me all that, when? How do you know all that?”
“I know all that Joe, because I’m awake during the day. I know she’s married and they have three kids now. The youngest is still in diapers. I see her load those kids up in that minivan every morning. She is usually wearing tennis shoes in the morning, not fancy high heels. Then, I see the husband bring the kids home in the afternoon.”
Joe stares at his wife for a moment and then shakes his head. The lights switch off in the house across the street. “Shows over. Since you know so much, what do you think she’s up to?”
“I think our neighbors are even stranger than I have given them credit for. I’m going back to bed now.” Bella stands wrapping her robe tightly around her shoulders. “Are you going to come?”
“No. Matlock is about to come on.”
* * *
Joe drives slowly down the silent street, turning his headlights off as he nears the park. He sneaks the car in behind a small group of trees and he looks through the branches. He loses her for a moment in the darkness. He squints his eyes behind his bifocals as he waits for them to adjust. He scans the play equipment, the baseball diamond and settles on the basketball court. Mindell Jacobs is walking on the court that is lit by one flickering lamp.
He watches her stride from one corner of the concrete slab to the other. She walks in the same pose as the night before. One hand is out, palm down, fingers stiff. Her other hand, however, rests on her hip. He searches and finds her insulated mug resting in the grass near the sputtering light. On her feet are the same gold heels she’s worn during her late night walks for a week. She switches from walking straight across to creating intricate designs with her footsteps.
Joe frowns and his eyebrows knot together as he takes off his glasses and rubs his weary eyes with one hand. He looks back up to find her leaving the park, walking back around the block toward her house. Joe waits until she is safely around the corner and then starts his car and drives back the way he came. He makes it back in front of his living room window just as she comes up the street.
* * *
Joe shuffles into the kitchen as the morning sun shines brightly through the breakfast nook windows. He leans against a kitchen chair, yawns loudly as he scratches his lower back.
Bella turns from the sink, shutting off the water. “Joe, you’re up! You startled me! Are you feeling alright?”
“Of course.” He drops into the chair, his battered robe catching on the corner of the table. He pulls it free and it tears. “Ah hell! How about some of that coffee I smell. Morning hurts.”
Bella smiles warmly and brings him a steaming mug. She sits with him, rubbing a dishtowel across the table as she watches him open his Sweet ‘n Low packets. She waits until he finishes folding the four pink rectangles together and flicks them across the table. “What has you up so early?”
“Didn’t you tell me that woman leaves in the morning with her kids?” Joe jabs his thumb over his shoulder toward the living room window.
“Yes. Does this mean she was at it again last night?” Bella scoots her chair closer to Joe. “Even so, she’s already left for the day. They’re early risers over in that house. Up with the sun they must be. I wonder that she gets any sleep at all, what with her late night walks.”
“I followed her last night.”
“What? You went for a walk? Joe, you know better, what if you had fallen? Your hip has been so bad since you fell last summer. The doctor warned you about long walks. I can’t believe you went traipsing around the neighborhood, especially after we both agreed that she was nuts to be out there like that. What were you. . .” She trails off as Joe holds up a hand.
“I followed her in the car.”
“Didn’t she see you?”
With a shake of his head, Joe recounts the way she was walking over the basketball court. He traces his finger on the kitchen table to demonstrate the different patterns she walked. “Does it mean anything to you?”
“I can’t think of any reason for it. This is certainly turning into quite the mystery. You’re sure she didn’t see you? I don’t want you taken for a stalker or anything.”
“I can be as sneaky as you when I put my mind to it, Bella.” Joe smiles at his wife over his coffee cup.
Bella flushes a bit and only waves her dishtowel at him in response.
“What’s the plan for today?” Joe says.
“What? Oh, you aren’t going back to bed?”
“Nah, I’m up now. You’re stuck with me.”
“Well, you know that faucet in the guest bathroom hasn’t been working right for months. And the screen over the back window is loose. Let me get a pad to make a list.” Bella stands and rummages through a drawer in the kitchen.
Joe laughs. “Can I shower first?”
* * *
“Bella,” Joe whispers as he softly strokes his wife’s hair from her face. “Bella, it’s time”.
Bella pulls the blanket off herself and sits up already fully dressed. She slips the shoes waiting beside the bed onto her feet and stands up. “All ready to go,” she says.
“She just left down the street. We need to hurry if you‘re going to see it.” Joe takes his wife’s hand and hurries out into the cold night air and into the car. They pull away from the house, both shivering in their seats.
Joe shuts off the headlights and parks the car in the same spot as the previous night.
“Do you think she’ll hear the car running?” says Bella her breath hanging in the air before her.
“Nah, she was wearing earmuffs tonight.”
“It’s so cold. I wonder why she still is out there walking. Oh look, there she is at the basketball court.” Bella points out Joe’s side of the windshield. “She is walking a lot faster than last time I saw her.” Bella leans in to Joe as she watches. She rests her hand on his knee and he settles his hand on top of hers. Through her chattering teeth she says, “It’s been awhile since we went parking.”
Joe laughs softly, wrapping his arm around his chilled wife. “I don’t remember ever parking when it was this cold.”
“It’s just your old bones Joe. Remember the night before our wedding? It was snowing.”
“Yeah, but I got the car warmed up before I got to your parent’s house, that night,”
“I don’t think we would have noticed if the car had been freezing. It was quite a night.” Bella snuggles closer.
“We used to take walks through this park.” Joe says.
“That’s right.” Bella turns her eyes from the basketball court and leans her head to look over Joe’s shoulder toward the other end of the park. “It was just after we bought the house. I always liked that tree-lined path.”
Joe squeezes Bella’s hand that she has pressed against his chest. “We’d hold hands and talk. It was nice to get away from the house for a peaceful walk back then.”
Bella snorts. “We had two grown kids living with us. They always had something happening.”
“Yeah, but we always managed to find a moment or two for each other, didn’t we.”
Bella nods and looks up at Joe’s face. He smiles back. They both look back out the windshield together.
Out on the basketball court, Mindell slips on a patch of ice and almost falls, but she manages to gracefully catch herself and stand straight again with hardly a pause in her strut.
Bella sighs softly. “That was close. I hope she doesn’t hurt herself.”
“She should go home.” Joe says.
“This park is great during daylight hours, especially with the grandkids, but at night like this, she’s just nuts.”
“Um, Bella, we’re out here. Does that make us crazy too?”
Bella reaches up and pats Joe’s cheek and says, “I’d rather be crazy with you than out there crazy alone.”
Joe smiles and turns from the view to his wife, kissing her forehead lightly. Bella glances back out at their neighbor.
“Oh, look Joe, she’s leaving.”
Mindell is now walking away from the park. Her strange arm positions abandoned as both her bare hands are tucked warmly under her armpits.
“We’ll have to hurry to beat her back home.” Joe pulls away from Bella and puts the car in gear. He pauses as Bella rests her hand back on his on the gear shift.
“Do we have to go? The car was just warming up.”
“Oh?” Joe slides the car back into park. He looks out the window watching Mindell disappear around the corner.
“Yeah, we know what she does when she gets home. What’s the rush? Let’s see if we crazies can still fog up the windows.”
Joe grins and meets his wife in a warm embrace.
* * *
“I think you should go talk to her tomorrow,” says Joe as he examines the TV Guide.
“I don’t know Joe. Last time I tried to make conversation, they were too much in a hurry and just got in their car and drove off.” says Bella setting her crossword puzzle in her lap.
“They don’t know me,” says Joe, “They only see me when their kids go trick or treating and that isn’t for another week. They will think it weird if I go over to make conversation. And Bella it’s been two days.”
“What should I say? Hi, remember me? Your neighbor? My husband and I have been watching you go on your late night walks. You know the walks you take wearing those unbelievably high heels? We were wondering why you’d stopped? For that matter, why you were doing it in the first place?” says Bella. She rolls her eyes in Joe’s direction emphatically.
“Being direct is my way, not yours. Use some of that word magic you got going.” Joe points at the crossword puzzle on Bella’s lap.
“I don’t know Joe. Let me think about it. Tomorrow is Sunday and they are usually home.”
Joe turns the television onto his favorite station for local news and the evening news anchor starts in on the story of a murdered little girl. Bella shakes her head and sets her puzzle book on the coffee table.
“I really hate all the nastiness they tell us about,” she says, pointing at the television.
“They can’t help what the news is, Bella. They just report it.”
“I know, but I still don’t like hearing all the bad news. That’s why I like the shows about celebrities. They have such interesting lives and there are no dead little girls.”
“Can’t beat that logic.” Joe laughs.
“I’m going to head to bed. You coming?” She stands and watches Joe’s face.
Joe looks up at his wife and smiles. “I think I will.” He picks back up the remote and pauses just before pressing the off button.
The news anchor says, “Tonight the annual Mrs. US Beauties pageant was held downtown in the convention center. Married women from all over the country competed for cash prizes.” A video begins playing of women wearing frilly, expensive evening gowns posing and walking across a stage. The camera focuses in on one woman wearing gold stilettos and a glittery gold gown with a long slit up one leg.
“Bella! Do you see this?” says Joe.
The anchor man’s voiceover continues as the woman in the gold gown is being crowned. “We all congratulate our own local Mrs. Mindell Jacobs on her win.”
Joe reaches out and grabs Bella’s hand. They laugh together as the news moves on to the weather forecast.
Bella says, “I think I will go have that conversation with our neighbor tomorrow.”
Please forgive the lack of formatting. It is tough when using copy and paste.
JOE’S DISCOVERY
“Bella, Bella wake up!” Joe shakes his wife firmly. She bolts upright startled, but hasn’t time for more than grabbing her robe as Joe rushes her out to the darkened living room.
“Joe…Wha..” She pauses to yawn, “What’s going on?”
Joe pulls her to the large window overlooking the street. Bella struggles into her robe and drops to a kitchen chair that has been moved in front of the window. Joe runs his hand over his thinning grey hair as he sits in a matching chair. “Ready?” Joe slowly opens the vertical blinds halfway.
“Now, watch!” Joe says and points down the street.
Bella rubs her puffy eyes and squints in the direction of his finger. “It is past 2 am Joe, it’s dark. There isn’t anything to see. Please, let me go back to bed.”
Joe peers intently down the street and then at his wrist watch. “Just a couple more minutes and you’ll see.”
They watch down the street. Bella redoes a couple of the loosened rollers in her hair. Joe whispers at her to stop moving, or she might be seen. Bella stops folds her arms and frowns.
Just then, movement can be seen under the streetlamp halfway down the block. Bella frowns again and leans closer to the window. “Who is out walking at this time of night?” she says. She slides forward on the chair.
“It’s that lady from that house across the street. I’ve been watching her, every night for a week now.”
“Mindell Jacobs? You’ve been watching her? Heavens, Joe, you’ve been spying!” Bella smiles at him and pokes him teasingly.
“Just watch!” he says.
The woman then steps out of the shadows and struts awkwardly down the sidewalk. In one hand she clenches an insulated mug and her other hand is held delicately out, her palm down, fingers splayed.
“What does she have on her feet?” says Bella.
“That’s why I woke you. I swear she does this every night about this time. Leaves down the block one way and returns back up the other.” Joe waves his hand to his left and then his right. “Always wearing the same thing. Big baggy sweats and those gold shoes.”
“They’re called stilettos.” Bella rests her forehead on the window and squints, “An expensive pair if I am seeing it right. I wish I had my glasses, but they’ve got to be at least five inches high. Is she wearing any make-up? Her hair looks like it is pulled back but I can’t make out if she might have another set of clothes underneath. Maybe our little mommy across the street has a side job we don’t know about.” Bella grins at the idea.
“Hell, I don’t know anything about make-up, but she doesn’t look like any hooker I’d pick up.”
Bella looks at Joe considering. “You’d pick up? Hmm?”
“You know what I mean. Her hair is a mess, and the way she holds that hand is more like she’s walking into my mother’s parlor than a strip club.”
“You said she does this every night?” Bella says.
“As far as I can tell. I noticed it for the first time last week. I was watching my shows like I always do ‘til I can sleep. There was movement out the window. I opened the blinds wide to see what it was. There she was prancing down the sidewalk. I thought maybe she saw me but hell; she’s kept it up all week. So I guess not.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Bella says, “It looks like she might just fall over in those shoes.”
“You would have believed me if I mentioned it over lunch at IHOP?”
Bella laughs. “Well, I tell you all I see going on out there.” She gestures to the houses lining the street. “I told you all about the ambulance over at the Mitchell’s place last week. I told you about Rachel Crow’s son going into rehab even though I swore I’d tell no one. I told you about those awful Stilwell boys and how they were throwing rocks at each other, right there in the street. You always believe me don’t you?”
“You told me all that, when? How do you know all that?”
“I know all that Joe, because I’m awake during the day. I know she’s married and they have three kids now. The youngest is still in diapers. I see her load those kids up in that minivan every morning. She is usually wearing tennis shoes in the morning, not fancy high heels. Then, I see the husband bring the kids home in the afternoon.”
Joe stares at his wife for a moment and then shakes his head. The lights switch off in the house across the street. “Shows over. Since you know so much, what do you think she’s up to?”
“I think our neighbors are even stranger than I have given them credit for. I’m going back to bed now.” Bella stands wrapping her robe tightly around her shoulders. “Are you going to come?”
“No. Matlock is about to come on.”
* * *
Joe drives slowly down the silent street, turning his headlights off as he nears the park. He sneaks the car in behind a small group of trees and he looks through the branches. He loses her for a moment in the darkness. He squints his eyes behind his bifocals as he waits for them to adjust. He scans the play equipment, the baseball diamond and settles on the basketball court. Mindell Jacobs is walking on the court that is lit by one flickering lamp.
He watches her stride from one corner of the concrete slab to the other. She walks in the same pose as the night before. One hand is out, palm down, fingers stiff. Her other hand, however, rests on her hip. He searches and finds her insulated mug resting in the grass near the sputtering light. On her feet are the same gold heels she’s worn during her late night walks for a week. She switches from walking straight across to creating intricate designs with her footsteps.
Joe frowns and his eyebrows knot together as he takes off his glasses and rubs his weary eyes with one hand. He looks back up to find her leaving the park, walking back around the block toward her house. Joe waits until she is safely around the corner and then starts his car and drives back the way he came. He makes it back in front of his living room window just as she comes up the street.
* * *
Joe shuffles into the kitchen as the morning sun shines brightly through the breakfast nook windows. He leans against a kitchen chair, yawns loudly as he scratches his lower back.
Bella turns from the sink, shutting off the water. “Joe, you’re up! You startled me! Are you feeling alright?”
“Of course.” He drops into the chair, his battered robe catching on the corner of the table. He pulls it free and it tears. “Ah hell! How about some of that coffee I smell. Morning hurts.”
Bella smiles warmly and brings him a steaming mug. She sits with him, rubbing a dishtowel across the table as she watches him open his Sweet ‘n Low packets. She waits until he finishes folding the four pink rectangles together and flicks them across the table. “What has you up so early?”
“Didn’t you tell me that woman leaves in the morning with her kids?” Joe jabs his thumb over his shoulder toward the living room window.
“Yes. Does this mean she was at it again last night?” Bella scoots her chair closer to Joe. “Even so, she’s already left for the day. They’re early risers over in that house. Up with the sun they must be. I wonder that she gets any sleep at all, what with her late night walks.”
“I followed her last night.”
“What? You went for a walk? Joe, you know better, what if you had fallen? Your hip has been so bad since you fell last summer. The doctor warned you about long walks. I can’t believe you went traipsing around the neighborhood, especially after we both agreed that she was nuts to be out there like that. What were you. . .” She trails off as Joe holds up a hand.
“I followed her in the car.”
“Didn’t she see you?”
With a shake of his head, Joe recounts the way she was walking over the basketball court. He traces his finger on the kitchen table to demonstrate the different patterns she walked. “Does it mean anything to you?”
“I can’t think of any reason for it. This is certainly turning into quite the mystery. You’re sure she didn’t see you? I don’t want you taken for a stalker or anything.”
“I can be as sneaky as you when I put my mind to it, Bella.” Joe smiles at his wife over his coffee cup.
Bella flushes a bit and only waves her dishtowel at him in response.
“What’s the plan for today?” Joe says.
“What? Oh, you aren’t going back to bed?”
“Nah, I’m up now. You’re stuck with me.”
“Well, you know that faucet in the guest bathroom hasn’t been working right for months. And the screen over the back window is loose. Let me get a pad to make a list.” Bella stands and rummages through a drawer in the kitchen.
Joe laughs. “Can I shower first?”
* * *
“Bella,” Joe whispers as he softly strokes his wife’s hair from her face. “Bella, it’s time”.
Bella pulls the blanket off herself and sits up already fully dressed. She slips the shoes waiting beside the bed onto her feet and stands up. “All ready to go,” she says.
“She just left down the street. We need to hurry if you‘re going to see it.” Joe takes his wife’s hand and hurries out into the cold night air and into the car. They pull away from the house, both shivering in their seats.
Joe shuts off the headlights and parks the car in the same spot as the previous night.
“Do you think she’ll hear the car running?” says Bella her breath hanging in the air before her.
“Nah, she was wearing earmuffs tonight.”
“It’s so cold. I wonder why she still is out there walking. Oh look, there she is at the basketball court.” Bella points out Joe’s side of the windshield. “She is walking a lot faster than last time I saw her.” Bella leans in to Joe as she watches. She rests her hand on his knee and he settles his hand on top of hers. Through her chattering teeth she says, “It’s been awhile since we went parking.”
Joe laughs softly, wrapping his arm around his chilled wife. “I don’t remember ever parking when it was this cold.”
“It’s just your old bones Joe. Remember the night before our wedding? It was snowing.”
“Yeah, but I got the car warmed up before I got to your parent’s house, that night,”
“I don’t think we would have noticed if the car had been freezing. It was quite a night.” Bella snuggles closer.
“We used to take walks through this park.” Joe says.
“That’s right.” Bella turns her eyes from the basketball court and leans her head to look over Joe’s shoulder toward the other end of the park. “It was just after we bought the house. I always liked that tree-lined path.”
Joe squeezes Bella’s hand that she has pressed against his chest. “We’d hold hands and talk. It was nice to get away from the house for a peaceful walk back then.”
Bella snorts. “We had two grown kids living with us. They always had something happening.”
“Yeah, but we always managed to find a moment or two for each other, didn’t we.”
Bella nods and looks up at Joe’s face. He smiles back. They both look back out the windshield together.
Out on the basketball court, Mindell slips on a patch of ice and almost falls, but she manages to gracefully catch herself and stand straight again with hardly a pause in her strut.
Bella sighs softly. “That was close. I hope she doesn’t hurt herself.”
“She should go home.” Joe says.
“This park is great during daylight hours, especially with the grandkids, but at night like this, she’s just nuts.”
“Um, Bella, we’re out here. Does that make us crazy too?”
Bella reaches up and pats Joe’s cheek and says, “I’d rather be crazy with you than out there crazy alone.”
Joe smiles and turns from the view to his wife, kissing her forehead lightly. Bella glances back out at their neighbor.
“Oh, look Joe, she’s leaving.”
Mindell is now walking away from the park. Her strange arm positions abandoned as both her bare hands are tucked warmly under her armpits.
“We’ll have to hurry to beat her back home.” Joe pulls away from Bella and puts the car in gear. He pauses as Bella rests her hand back on his on the gear shift.
“Do we have to go? The car was just warming up.”
“Oh?” Joe slides the car back into park. He looks out the window watching Mindell disappear around the corner.
“Yeah, we know what she does when she gets home. What’s the rush? Let’s see if we crazies can still fog up the windows.”
Joe grins and meets his wife in a warm embrace.
* * *
“I think you should go talk to her tomorrow,” says Joe as he examines the TV Guide.
“I don’t know Joe. Last time I tried to make conversation, they were too much in a hurry and just got in their car and drove off.” says Bella setting her crossword puzzle in her lap.
“They don’t know me,” says Joe, “They only see me when their kids go trick or treating and that isn’t for another week. They will think it weird if I go over to make conversation. And Bella it’s been two days.”
“What should I say? Hi, remember me? Your neighbor? My husband and I have been watching you go on your late night walks. You know the walks you take wearing those unbelievably high heels? We were wondering why you’d stopped? For that matter, why you were doing it in the first place?” says Bella. She rolls her eyes in Joe’s direction emphatically.
“Being direct is my way, not yours. Use some of that word magic you got going.” Joe points at the crossword puzzle on Bella’s lap.
“I don’t know Joe. Let me think about it. Tomorrow is Sunday and they are usually home.”
Joe turns the television onto his favorite station for local news and the evening news anchor starts in on the story of a murdered little girl. Bella shakes her head and sets her puzzle book on the coffee table.
“I really hate all the nastiness they tell us about,” she says, pointing at the television.
“They can’t help what the news is, Bella. They just report it.”
“I know, but I still don’t like hearing all the bad news. That’s why I like the shows about celebrities. They have such interesting lives and there are no dead little girls.”
“Can’t beat that logic.” Joe laughs.
“I’m going to head to bed. You coming?” She stands and watches Joe’s face.
Joe looks up at his wife and smiles. “I think I will.” He picks back up the remote and pauses just before pressing the off button.
The news anchor says, “Tonight the annual Mrs. US Beauties pageant was held downtown in the convention center. Married women from all over the country competed for cash prizes.” A video begins playing of women wearing frilly, expensive evening gowns posing and walking across a stage. The camera focuses in on one woman wearing gold stilettos and a glittery gold gown with a long slit up one leg.
“Bella! Do you see this?” says Joe.
The anchor man’s voiceover continues as the woman in the gold gown is being crowned. “We all congratulate our own local Mrs. Mindell Jacobs on her win.”
Joe reaches out and grabs Bella’s hand. They laugh together as the news moves on to the weather forecast.
Bella says, “I think I will go have that conversation with our neighbor tomorrow.”
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