The New Neighbors

 

Dennis from upstairs, calls me Gladys Kravitz. Only because I'm on the first floor and I can see everything from my living room windows. Five big windows that let me see what's going on from one end of the street to the other. Last week I noticed a beat up Jeep Cherokee parked across the street from my house. Not only was it beat up, but there always seemed to be trash scattered around it. I mentioned it to Dennis. He suggested that maybe somebody is living in it. Sure enough, that very day I saw a woman with a baby stroller going through the trash in the alley. Later I saw that same stroller sitting behind the Jeep. So I kept an eye on it and I then saw that there was a man too. Me being the good Gladys Kravitz, I decided that I would go talk to them. Assuming that they were probably from another country, probably from South or Central America, I brushed up on a few Spanish words that I knew before going over there. It went like this.

The man was standing behind the Jeep working on his bicycle. "Hello."

He responded. "Hello."

"Are you sleeping in the car?" I pointed to the Jeep.

"Yes"

"Okay, that's fine. Did you know this is permit parking? If you park north of the alley you won't get a ticket."

"Okay."

"If you get too many tickets they'll tow your car away." Not that the city of Chicago really enforces the permit parking around here.

"Okay."

"Just one more thing. Try not to leave trash on the street or the parkway. It attracts rats."

"Okay."

I didn't have to use any of my Spanglish. The next day, and the next day, the Jeep did not move. Also, there was still trash showing up around it. I had hoped the guy would have understood that I was only trying to help. Then I thought about it. He only said three words to me. "Hello", "Yes", and "Okay." Kind of like me speaking Spanish. "Sí", "Dónde", and "Baño".