Chapter Text
He loves his wife. He really, really loves his wife. She's the first thing that pops into his head in the morning and the last thing he thinks off before falling asleep. Everything he does is for her.
And during his job (which he does to support his beautiful wife) he's met a lot of interesting people, none more so than his first customer of the day. A young man that lives at the edge of his neighborhood who calls himself John Doe.
From what little he says about Mr. Doe to his darling Venus she's labeled him “freakish”. That didn't seem fair, Mr. Doe was troubled, sure. Creepy? Well, Koolie would prefer the description “socially awkward” but yeah. He seemed lonely more than anything. Koolie rarely saw him leave his house. Getting glimpses of him at the local convenience store was about as much as Koolie had to go off ignoring the rumors.
Jeeze, the rumors. People in his town loved to talk, and ever since Mr. Doe moved in; they had all been a bunch of chatter boxes. He tried the best he could to stay out of it, an almost impossible task for someone so interknit with the community. He caught whispers, varying everywhere from satanic worship to him having something to do with the recent problem of pets going missing. It was cruel. Nothin more and nothing less.
It was three in the morning. Koolie had just finished putting on his carefully laid outfit from the night before. A quick check up on Venus and he was out the door for the morning deliveries. Humming softly as he climbed up into his truck, he went on his way to Mr. Doe’s house. Every morning as he sat the bottle on the messy porch he hoped Mr. Doe would make an appearance. Koolie wanted to make a proper introduction, maybe show him that not everyone in this town was quite as judgey. But alas, Mr. Doe seemed to not be a morning person.
It was nine in the morning when Koolie finally finished up, making his way back to Venus. Taking a small detour that led him down Mr. Doe’s road. He glanced at the house and paused. The milk was still sitting on the porch. That wasn't good at all, be a shame if it went to waste. What could knocking and checking in hurt? He's never seen Mr. Doe not take up his milk by the time he drives by.
He paused halfway down the driveway, he felt something heavy in his stomach. Koolie could barely find it in himself to not turn back around. Dread and fear pricked at his skin. Koolie shook his head. He was a grown man. Letting the town rumors get the better of him, get in the way of reaching out to someone. Forcing through it he walked faster than usual up to the front door ignoring the shuffling of the front window curtain as he approached. His hand shook as he reached up to knock but the door flung open.
“I'm not home right now!” his voice was strained and urgent, cracking a bit. The panicked tone matched his wild eyes but not his wide grin bearing decidedly unhealthy looking yellow teeth. Koolie blanked for a second. A bit too stunned to register…much of anything. On autopilot he gave a friendly “pardon?”
“I'm not ho- not…im not” Mr. Doe seemed like he was just now realizing the flaw in his plan, laughing awkwardly with a very over exaggerated shake of his shoulders. Koolie cleared his throat, playing with a piece of his hair. “I can see you're busy, I was just..uhm checking in cause you had not taken your milk in, that is unless you're trying to make cheese.” Koolie gave him a smile and fought not to scrunch up his nose as the smell was just now hitting him. Unsure if it was coming from Mr. Doe or the house behind him that was almost completely blocked from view between Mr. Doe and the door. It definitely looked like he was intentionally trying to block the view. Some people are just funny about privacy like that.
Mr. Doe did not seem like he was going to respond as he stared right through him. So Koolie pushed right ahead, awkwardly turning to pick up the milk and ignoring the feeling that he was turning his back on a predator. It was lukewarm and Koolie frowned. “Uhm maybe give this a whiff before drinking it. It might already be too late” not that you could smell rotten milk through the rest of the stench. Koolies frown deepened. That was mean, he shouldn't think that. Koolie has no idea what's going on in Mr. Doe’s life, who is he to judge? “I'm Koolie sterling, your milkman. It's nice to finally properly be introduced Mr Doe” Koolie stuck out his hand awkwardly on instinct after handing him the milk.
Mr. Doe looked up and down from Koolies face to his outstretched hand. “Mister, huh? No one really calls me that.’’ Mr. Doe took Koolies hand. Not really a shake, more of just gripping it. His hand was clammy and concerningly boney. Mr. Doe’s breathing seemed to hitch and deepen a bit as he stared at their hands. Koolie stood there for a good ten seconds before deciding he had quite enough of that and pulled away. There was now a sticky residue left on his hand and Koolie was not going to question it.
“Well, I'll be heading on my way now. See you around, don't be a stranger” Mr.Doe twitched “yes see you. Around.” with that the door slammed shut. Koolie all but ran back to his truck. He felt vaguely nauseous as the grabbed a clorax wipe for his hand. Driving back home he ruminated on the talk. Koolie hated to admit it but he could see why so many rumors popped up about him. He was…Koolie cut himself off. What he was was a young man very obviously in need of some kind of help and the town treating him like that was doing nothing good for him.
Koolie knew what it was like to have baseless assumptions frown at his feet. But he had Venus, Venus could make everything ok again. From everything koolie could tell Mr. Doe had no one like that. Koolie arrives home and throws all his clothes in the laundy basket and hops in the shower immediately making sure he didnt bring anything back that Venus could catch. After making her breakfast he lies down in his bed for his twelve aclock nap thinking of how he could help mr. Doe break out of his shell.