When the subject comes up, Lois reassures Brenda that everything is fine. She even explains how the neighbors help out from time to time though the young men who moved in and are renting the house next door to the north don’t actually appear entirely reliable, having frequent parties and such. Still, Bob next door, on the south, has taken it on himself keep an eye out for Lois. He’s cut her grass once or twice and, the other day, he even raked her leaves in the front yard.
Bob doesn’t mind helping Lois when he has the chance. He says she reminds him of his own late mother. However, he works long hours and the actual opportunities to help are infrequent. Bob has his own family and his life is already busy.
One day recently, Bob was pulling out of his driveway on his way to work and glanced over at Lois’ house as he did many a day when pulling in or out of his driveway. He could tell that there was something wrong with this picture but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Later in the day, he overheard the foreman telling Kevin, a young coworker, to take the garbage out back to the dumpster. He heard the foreman say, “And don’t forget to close the door this time.” That’s when it struck Bob what was wrong over at Lois’ house; her garage door was wide open.
That the garage door was wide open wasn’t so surprising on occasion, but Bob realized that it had been that way all week. When he arrived home that evening, he noticed that it was still open. Bob walked over and knocked on the door.
When Lois came to the door, he asked her if there was something wrong with the garage door.
“The door is stuck,” said Lois. “I opened it the other day but it won’t come down again.”
Bob looked alarmed. It wasn’t just that the lawnmower, car and other items stored in the garage, including Lois’ deceased husband’s large assortment of power tools that someone could come in and walk away with; the problem was that the garage is attached to the house. If someone had access to the garage, they might have easy access to the house, too.
Bob went out to the garage with Lois and checked the garage door. He hoped it was something simple but nothing seemed to work. He just couldn’t get the garage door to come down again. And Lois was concerned that, if he did get the garage door down again, it might not go back up. “If it gets stuck down my car will be stuck in the garage,” she said.
Realizing that he couldn’t fix the garage door there and then, Bob went and checked the door inside the garage that led to the house. As he suspected, the door was unlocked.
“Boy, you really have to lock this door until we can get the garage door fixed,” he said to Lois.
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” she said. “I didn’t think of that.”
Bob then told Lois that he knows someone who works with garage doors. “I’ll give him a call this evening and ask him to come out,” Bob said.
The next day, the garage door technician came out and discovered a problem with the wiring. Within half an hour, he had the garage door working just fine again. He also checked the operation of the garage door and garage door opener and lubricated the guides and hinges.
When Bob came home from work the next day, he noticed that the garage door was still open. He went over and knocked on the front door again.
When Lois came to the door she explained, “Oh yes, he was out here this morning. I went to the store a while ago and didn’t close the door yet because I’m going to meet some friends for cards this evening.”
Bob was glad to hear that the garage door was back in working order. “I’m sure your daughter will be happy to hear the garage door is working right again,” he said.
“Oh no,” said Lois. “I think it’s better that I don’t tell her anything about it. She’ll just get all worried all over again.”
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