Peeping through the railing

Margot Sinclair felt she was a woman without any ambition. At thirty-two, her waist was still slender. Her husband, Gu Yan, worked day and night on a project at the research institute, so she kept the whole house spotlessly clean, not even sparing the weeds in the yard. Alden Burke, who had recently moved in next door, was a middle-aged man living alone, quiet and reticent. He always seemed to appear on the other side of the railing whenever she bent down to tend the flowers and plants. That feeling of being watched was like a fine needle buried beneath the skin—it couldn't be pulled out, yet it wasn't going to kill you either.