June 26. The Neighbors IV

So that same weekend we blew leaves in the street, we cleaned up the backyard as well, and the husband was in his backyard with the radio playing. Shirt off, old blue ink tattoos randomly placed on his chest, scraggly beard and a cigarette.

A Michael Jackson song came on and he turned it up. Looked over the cyclone fence at us and said, "Gotta turn it up when it's Michael." Maggie smiled at him, which was obviously a huge mistake.

I only listened to part of the conversation because there's a part of me that protects myself from crazy, and I could tell this was crazy. I remarked to Maggie afterwards that she's kind of a concierge for crazy people, that something about her makes people think they can just talk to her about anything.

Here was the basic idea of his story: Jesus talks to him. Sends him messages in the clouds. And 9 years ago Jesus spoke to him and told him that a special message was coming. And then, two weeks after Michael Jackson's death, he appeared to him in the clouds. A cloud image of Michael Jackson, complete with his white gloves, appeared in the clouds.

He went on to say that he was collecting photos of clouds that send him messages and plans to write a book.

He has been in contact with Tito and LaToya. Janet won't take his calls. He thinks this is something that the Jacksons will be keenly interested in. It's been a long time but he's confident.

He showed us a picture on his phone of the cloud. And I will admit, with that story ahead of time prompting me, I could see how you could see Michael Jackson in the cloud. He swore it wasn't photoshopped, and if I wanted, he would send it to my email so I could see it on a bigger screen. I avoided the question.

"Did you see all of that from your front porch?" Maggie asked him.

"Oh, no. I was in the parking lot of the Pizza Hut."