Neighbors

When I was a small child, we had neighbors who my mother couldn't stand. I never knew why, I was only a small child, but she really did not like them. She even chased the "Man of the House" out of our yard once with a broom. I kind of wanted her to catch up to him, would have been fun to see her smack him down. When I was a bit older, we moved to the other side of town. Once again we had a neighbor who Mom did not like. This time I was thirteen and I understood why. The woman was a (Insert bad word here). She hated us the minute she saw the station wagon roll up the driveway with eleven children in it. A six foot fence was eventually built and we all coexisted.

I recently learned that my neighbor to the north of us sold his building. It is identical to ours, the only two buildings on the street that are identical, yet it is not the same. I have no bricks falling from the facade. I do not have weeds, wild trees, and out of control shrubs growing up past my front windows. Weeds are not growing from the cracks in my front porch. A huge pile of trash has not piled up next to the house along with rats nests. My back yard is not six feet tall with weeds. Yes, my neighbor has a lot of weeds growing around his building. So I asked the guy who rents the garage behind the house of weeds if he knew who bought the place? He told me that it was a business, some kind of real estate company. I said, "That's nice" and walked away. Inside, I was in a state of panic. A company? A real estate company? Holy shit, what the hell are their plans for the place? Slumlords, flippers, just what would I be living next to? Then I calmed down. The property is too valuable to be turned into a "Section eight" rental. And if it is flippers, that isn't a bad thing. The weeds will be cut down, the bricks tuckpointed, and the trash and rats nests will be cleaned up. They will remodel it and then they will sell it again. At which point I will panic again.