The Neighbor

I Believe · Apr 7, 2026 · 31m

The shingles were hot enough to burn through his knees if he stopped moving. July in Leavenworth and the sun hit the roof and the heat came off in waves you could see rising like water that wasn’t there. He was skinny. Wiry. The kind of thin that doesn’t come from a gym. It comes from being on a roof in Kansas every day for years until the work carves you down to what’s essential and everything else burns off.He moved well up there. You don’t notice a good roofer until you watch one. The way the body knows where the pitch changes, the way the hands find the nail gun without looking. He was…