Mary Tyler Moore House

“Is this it?” Katherine asked, Pressing her face forward, and bending her neck back so her nose and chin almost touched the glass on the car window.
“No. I think it’s down another block.” Phil replied, staring forward, his face without expression. “I don’t know what’s causing the fad to come back, but you’re the third friend from out of town to make me bring ‘em here.”
“I’ve just been ordering the DVD’s from Netflix, so since I’m here… Is that it?”
“No.”
“None of this looks familiar.”
“They didn’t really film any of the show in Minneapolis. They filmed it in California I think.”
“But if you looked out her window you could see the houses across the street.”
“No you couldn’t.”
Katherine looked at him with confusion and eyes flaring in shock. “Yes I did!”
“It was fake. It was a set. The houses you ‘saw’ through her window were fake.”
“They were based on the real neighborhood!”
Phil sighed, and ducked his head down to scan the upper floors of the houses for the infamous window. “Here.” He said after a moment, “This is it.”

Phil slowed the car down and the two of them peered out the drivers side window. There it was, brown, smaller than it looked on the show, and under construction. Katherine was quiet, her face frozen in an expression of anticipation and strain. Neither one spoke as Katherine got out of the car and walked carefully toward the sidewalk, both hands held out delicately at her sides as if she were balancing on a high-wire. She stood there as jetta’s sped past the narrow streets and wealthy men in pink dress shirts made their way home. Her eyes were fixed on the arching upstairs windows as if she saw a ghost. Then her face began to sour. She looked around at the other houses and up the street. “This isn’t it.”
“Christ!” Phil exclaimed, still sitting in the car with the window rolled down and arms draped over the edge like an ape. “It is! I’ve been here a million times!” He added in frustration.
“It’s not. It’s too small. And this street isn’t familiar.”
“It’s television you moron! Plus it’s been 30 years since the show’s been on!” He yelled.
Katherine turned to Phil. Her grimace softened as she looked to him.
“I’m sorry.” Phil said after seeing her expression. “It really is the house though.”
”But… My divorce… Phyllis…” She whispered to herself as she turned to the house again, staring pleadingly to the window.
“C’mon Katherine. I’ll take you to Sabastian Joe’s for a coyote chocolate cone.” Phil said, now out of his car, and guiding her back to her seat.



The two of them sat on the steps of the purple Masonic Temple, licking their spicy ice creams and not speaking. Katherine looking sad, took slow, deliberate licks from her cone. Phil was slouched, sulking from annoyance with his legs spread eagle across the steps below him, and one elbow on the step behind. Finally, without provocation, Katherine stood up, throwing her ice cream cone down on the ground before her. Some people who were seated outside the ice cream shop groaned in annoyance. “That wasn’t the house Phil.” She announced, staring off into the distance.
“Yes it was dick. You want me google the fucking thing on my phone and prove it to you?”
“That wasn’t the house Phil, and we’re not going home until we find the real one.”
“Look. See? Right here. 21^st and Kenwood. We were at the house.” He pleaded, holding his cellphone up to her.
Katherine turned to him with teeth clenched and eyes narrowed, “Were. Going. To. Keep. Looking.”
“You need to go back to Wisconsin.”
She knocked the cellphone out of his hand and stormed to the car. Since the doors were locked, she paused at the passenger door and proceeded to pull the handle up and down, making a repetitive clacking sound.
“Christ! Alright!” Phil growled, scooping his phone off the pavement and storming toward his car. He pressed the unlock button on his key chain and Katherine slid into her seat.

Slamming the door, Phil put the key in the ignition and, without looking at her, demanded to know where she planned on looking.
“We’ll start at lake Calhoon, and widen our search until we find it.” She said matter of factly, then adding, “Mary loved to walk around the lake after work.”
”What the fuck?”
Katherine stared at Phil with intensity. He turned the key and revved the engine while muttering, ‘You’re divorce is going to ruin the whole weekend’ as he peeled out- nearly hitting a wealthy looking teenage girl in a tube top.