"Karen"

Karen had driven back and forth, up and then back down the street three times.  Rose-ann's car was parked in the driveway, still, but all of her windows were shut on this hot summer's day and all of the curtains were drawn.  "She's in there...I know she's in there!"  Karen was mad!  She had been by Rose-ann's house three times in three days, this week, and every time Rose-ann's car had been in the driveway and every time Karen had knocked and knocked and knocked at the door, but Rose-ann had not answered.   She had left notes and had called and left message after message.  "I am going to get down to the bottom of this mystery...TODAY!",  Karen pledged to herself as she turned her car around, headed back down the block and pulled her car in behind Rose-ann's vehicle in the driveway.  She parked her car, grabbed her purse, and marched up to the flaming red door.  Rose-ann had been promising to host a meeting of the Book Woman Club in her home for almost a year and every time, at the last minute, she would bow-out with some lame excuse or another.  She would plead that her bathroom didn't work, or that the ongoing and never ending renovation of her home wasn't done, or that the contractors had turned off the electrical box for the weekend and that she was using candles!  "Nonsense!"  Karen thought.  She lived around the corner from Rose-ann and she had never seen a contractor's van or workman's truck at Rose-ann's house.  Something wasn't right here, and although she and Rose-ann had only known each other for less than a year, Karen felt strongly that someone needed to intervene and find out what was going on!  Karen was that someone!   "Rose-ann!"  Karen yelled, her hands on her hips.  "Rose-ann, I know you're in there!  Rose-ann, open this door!"  Karen pulled herself up on her tip toes, stretching to see into the small window in the door, her short full-figure body almost falling over, but like a weeble-wobble she rocked back and forth until she was corrected her balance.  "Rose-ann!"  A thick shade covered the door's small window and try as she might, Karen could not see into the house.  Karen began pounding on the door as she shouted.  "Rose-ann!  You answer this door!  I'm not leaving until you answer this door!"  She pounded and pounded until her fingers vibrated in pain!  One of Rose-ann's next door neighbors opened his door and yelled at Karen, "I don't think she's home!"  "Oh, she's in there!  Rose-ann!"  Karen turned away from the neighbor and began kicking the door!  The neighbor stepped out onto his porch, waving his fist and shouting.  "Look!  She's not home! Leave her a note!  I got to go to work tonight and I  can't sleep with all your racket!"  Karen continued to shout at the door, ignoring the sleep deprived and now irate neighbor.  "Rose-ann!  I've been here three times this week and I've left numerous notes and messages!  Now, you open this door and let me in!"  "I'm calling the police!", the neighbor threatened. "Go ahead and call them!  For all I know, she could be dead and decaying away in there.  Call them!  As a matter of fact, I'll call the police."  The neighbor threw up his hands, and slamming his front door, went back inside.  Karen stepped back from the red door.  "Rose-ann!  I'm gonna assume that your dead.  I'm calling the police so they can take your dead body out of there before your cat eats you!"  Karen reached into her purse and took out her cell phone.  "You hear me, Rose-ann?  I'm counting to three, and then I'm calling the Police!  You hear me?  One!  I'm not kidding, I'm dialing 9!  Two!  I just dialed 1!  Th..."  Rose-ann's door inched open with a loud squeal!  "For heaven's sake!  What is wrong with you?  What do you want?"   Rose-ann's face was framed in the 1/2 inch space that she had created, between the door and the door jam, when she opened her door.  "I've been knocking and shouting at this door for a good fifteen minutes!  I want to know why you've been ignoring me!"  "Really?", Rose-ann answered innocently.  "I must have not heard you!"  "Bull!  You heard me!  The dead folks in the cemetery across town heard me!"  Rose-ann's sighed and she looked at Karen with weary eyes.  "Karen...what is it that you want?  I'm really busy and I can't talk to you right now!  Why don't you go on home and I'll call you later."  Rose-ann began to close her door, but Karen quickly twisted her foot sideways and wedged it in the small opening before Rose-ann could close the door all the way.  "Ow!  My foot's caught!  Open this door, Rose-ann!"  Rose-ann propped the door open enough to relieve the pressure on Karen's foot and said, "I told you I was busy!  I got to go!"  Karen kicked at the door with the front of her foot, catching Rose-ann off guard, and widening the opening by maybe a half an inch.  In a flash, she turned her foot and then stomped it down flat in the door's opening.  "Oh no you don't!  You are going to talk to me!  You've been avoiding me ever since that last meeting at my house when I asked you why you never - ever host the Book Woman Club at your house.  I'm here to get the bottom of this, Rose-ann!  What is going on with you?  What's going on in this house?"  "Nothing, Karen!  Move your foot!  I got food on the stove!"  Rose-ann tried to push Karen's foot out of the doorway with her own foot, but Karen refused to budge.  "The Book Woman Club women have known you for almost a year!  You have been in just about every member's home, and not one of us have ever been in yours!  You're always saying that you are renovating and then backing out of hosting the meeting at the last minute! None of us has seen a workman's truck or van or ladder on this property!  Rose-ann, the women are starting to whisper about you...wander if you're growing pot in there or if you got a man chained up in your basement or something!"  Karen smiled, trying to add some levity to the reason for her intrusiveness; well...to her nosiness.  Rose-ann just stood there, staring at Karen.  Karen tried again.  "Look, I am your friend, Rose-ann!  I know you don't know me that well, but I am your friend!  I will help you...no matter what the problem is!  Just tell me!  I promise you,  I won't tell anybody else!  This, what ever it is, will be between you and me."   Rose-ann looked down at her welcome mat as if studying the pattern for use in one of her amazing quilts.  "Let me help you, Rose-ann.  You're going to have to let someone in sometime.  This world's too hard trying to do it all alone!  Let me help you!"  Rose-anne she looked up, her eyes filled with tears.  "Rose-ann?"  Karen reached out to comfort her, but Rose-ann stepped back, avoiding her touch and opening her door... wide.  Karen looked in and gasped!