The hood: Part II
If you missed part I, well, you didn't miss much.
A major player in our former hood was our across the street neighbor, Brenda...God rest her soul.
Seriously, she's dead.
Brenda was a middle aged woman who was very concerned about the neighborhood and all the people living in it. She would come over to talk about said neighbors whenever we were outside (or not) and at night, she left her front door open, letting the light of her living room shine through her screen door. For whatever it was worth, she was always giving me the low down on the residents of our street.
"The woman who lives there is a spoiled, Daddy's girl." (Who also let her dog poop in people's front yards)
"Could Steve feed anymore feral cats? We're in a disagreement over yard maintenance."
"I don't get my SS check until next week, can I borrow $5 for bread?" Okay, this one is not gossip, and the $5 was not for bread...it was for cigarettes. And it didn't stop at $5...I think by the time we moved, Brenda had racked up about a $75 tab.
Don't think she didn't try to pay me back though...it was just in things other than the actual money I lent her. The greatest gift was a tarnished, silver chalice that looked like it had sat in storage for a decade. When I took it out of the box, it was engraved with the names of two people who were married and their wedding date.
That was so funny, and I'm so glad she wasn't in my presence when I opened it because I laughed uncontrollably for several minutes.
Even though she was strange and terrible at gift giving, I found comfort in seeing her light before I went to sleep on nights where V worked overnight and I was sleeping home alone. Ennis, as noted in the previous story, is a worthless guard dog.
With that light brought discomfort, too.
I would hear cars pull up in the early morning hours, people get out, talk, and shortly after get back in their car and drive away.
Shady.
Once she asked for a ride to her former place of employment because she said she needed to collect her last checks. When we got there, it was very clear that there were no checks waiting for her and that people were uncomfortable. Don't worry, I also called V before that trip to let him know what was up in case I never came back.
Ay dios mio.
I used to always take Ennis to school on Fridays with me to hang out in my classroom with the students. One Friday, it was raining and I didn't wake up on time. As I was scrambling to get out the door, I decided it was too much of a hassle to grab Ennis, so I promised the students I would bring him on the following Monday.
On Monday, I took Ennis to school and got a call from the alarm company at the house. I sometimes got calls anyway for motion, so I didn't think too much of it, but I did have Ennis with me and if anything used to set off the motion, I thought it would be Ennis.
I got home and did a perimeter check before entering the house and everything looked fine until I went around back and saw a window busted out.
Nothing sinks your heart faster.
I called the police to come out again. When the lady cop got there, she wrote up what she saw and followed me inside. By this point, Brenda had come over to talk to me about seeing a cop car outside our house that day. She was wondering if everything was okay, and just like that...my suspicions ran high on Miss neighbor Brenda. She followed me, and the cop inside the house and was going room to room with me casing out the house? Or so I thought then.
The cop went to the back room where the person had entered the house and Brenda was still in the living room. I mouthed to the cop, "make her leave..." She thanked Brenda for her help and said that was all she needed from her.
When Brenda left, I unloaded a list of accusations and assumptions I had no idea to be true, believing that Brenda was in on this somehow since she watched the patterns of everyone so closely. Everyone knows I take Ennis to school on Fridays, but how convenient this happened on a Monday when the only person who would have seen me take Ennis with me in the dark of morning, was Brenda. (yeah, I proofread that and I'm keeping it..."allow myself introduce...myself...")
Yeah, I snitched without one bit of proof. (blog post about snitching coming soon...)
In hindsight, of course it could have been coincidence, and the offender didn't take anything except an old rifle that my Dad had. It was under lock and key and who knows where the key was. I think it was a replica and maybe didn't even work anymore. But knowing that someone was in my house, looking at my things, seeing pictures of me on the walls, and knowing me on the street but me not knowing them was so unnerving.
To make matters worse, the window was busted and V was working overnight that night. I called Sara to come stay with me that night and on all future nights V worked until we moved.
We had always thought about moving but this was the push to make that move happen.
I hate to admit it, but I pretty much stopped talking to Brenda after that. Even if she had nothing to do with it, she was doing something bad. No one has visitors for 5 minute increments at all hours of the night.
We moved and never let her know where. I barely said goodbye.
After a few months in the new house, V saw Brenda at St. Paul...as a patient. She had pancreatic cancer. My Asian/Catholic guilt eventually led me to visit her and she acted so thankful that I was there...making me feel even more guilty. She asked about our new house (which I still lied about the city we moved to) and told me how the neighborhood was and how horrible the new people were that moved into our old house. (I saw an OU flag in the window when I drove by one afternoon, so I believe what she says to be true.)
She was wondering how her son was going to make it without her (special needs) and was talking through all the loose ends she was tying up before the literal end.
I just sat there quietly and listened. She laughed and cried as she worked out loud her plans for her final days and then we were interrupted by her family.
I hugged her goodbye and as I was leaving, debated on asking for my money back...
JUST KIDDING!
I'll never forget that lady.
A major player in our former hood was our across the street neighbor, Brenda...God rest her soul.
Seriously, she's dead.
Brenda was a middle aged woman who was very concerned about the neighborhood and all the people living in it. She would come over to talk about said neighbors whenever we were outside (or not) and at night, she left her front door open, letting the light of her living room shine through her screen door. For whatever it was worth, she was always giving me the low down on the residents of our street.
"The woman who lives there is a spoiled, Daddy's girl." (Who also let her dog poop in people's front yards)
"Could Steve feed anymore feral cats? We're in a disagreement over yard maintenance."
"I don't get my SS check until next week, can I borrow $5 for bread?" Okay, this one is not gossip, and the $5 was not for bread...it was for cigarettes. And it didn't stop at $5...I think by the time we moved, Brenda had racked up about a $75 tab.
Don't think she didn't try to pay me back though...it was just in things other than the actual money I lent her. The greatest gift was a tarnished, silver chalice that looked like it had sat in storage for a decade. When I took it out of the box, it was engraved with the names of two people who were married and their wedding date.
That was so funny, and I'm so glad she wasn't in my presence when I opened it because I laughed uncontrollably for several minutes.
Even though she was strange and terrible at gift giving, I found comfort in seeing her light before I went to sleep on nights where V worked overnight and I was sleeping home alone. Ennis, as noted in the previous story, is a worthless guard dog.
With that light brought discomfort, too.
I would hear cars pull up in the early morning hours, people get out, talk, and shortly after get back in their car and drive away.
Shady.
Once she asked for a ride to her former place of employment because she said she needed to collect her last checks. When we got there, it was very clear that there were no checks waiting for her and that people were uncomfortable. Don't worry, I also called V before that trip to let him know what was up in case I never came back.
Ay dios mio.
I used to always take Ennis to school on Fridays with me to hang out in my classroom with the students. One Friday, it was raining and I didn't wake up on time. As I was scrambling to get out the door, I decided it was too much of a hassle to grab Ennis, so I promised the students I would bring him on the following Monday.
On Monday, I took Ennis to school and got a call from the alarm company at the house. I sometimes got calls anyway for motion, so I didn't think too much of it, but I did have Ennis with me and if anything used to set off the motion, I thought it would be Ennis.
I got home and did a perimeter check before entering the house and everything looked fine until I went around back and saw a window busted out.
Nothing sinks your heart faster.
I called the police to come out again. When the lady cop got there, she wrote up what she saw and followed me inside. By this point, Brenda had come over to talk to me about seeing a cop car outside our house that day. She was wondering if everything was okay, and just like that...my suspicions ran high on Miss neighbor Brenda. She followed me, and the cop inside the house and was going room to room with me casing out the house? Or so I thought then.
The cop went to the back room where the person had entered the house and Brenda was still in the living room. I mouthed to the cop, "make her leave..." She thanked Brenda for her help and said that was all she needed from her.
When Brenda left, I unloaded a list of accusations and assumptions I had no idea to be true, believing that Brenda was in on this somehow since she watched the patterns of everyone so closely. Everyone knows I take Ennis to school on Fridays, but how convenient this happened on a Monday when the only person who would have seen me take Ennis with me in the dark of morning, was Brenda. (yeah, I proofread that and I'm keeping it..."allow myself introduce...myself...")
Yeah, I snitched without one bit of proof. (blog post about snitching coming soon...)
In hindsight, of course it could have been coincidence, and the offender didn't take anything except an old rifle that my Dad had. It was under lock and key and who knows where the key was. I think it was a replica and maybe didn't even work anymore. But knowing that someone was in my house, looking at my things, seeing pictures of me on the walls, and knowing me on the street but me not knowing them was so unnerving.
To make matters worse, the window was busted and V was working overnight that night. I called Sara to come stay with me that night and on all future nights V worked until we moved.
We had always thought about moving but this was the push to make that move happen.
I hate to admit it, but I pretty much stopped talking to Brenda after that. Even if she had nothing to do with it, she was doing something bad. No one has visitors for 5 minute increments at all hours of the night.
We moved and never let her know where. I barely said goodbye.
After a few months in the new house, V saw Brenda at St. Paul...as a patient. She had pancreatic cancer. My Asian/Catholic guilt eventually led me to visit her and she acted so thankful that I was there...making me feel even more guilty. She asked about our new house (which I still lied about the city we moved to) and told me how the neighborhood was and how horrible the new people were that moved into our old house. (I saw an OU flag in the window when I drove by one afternoon, so I believe what she says to be true.)
She was wondering how her son was going to make it without her (special needs) and was talking through all the loose ends she was tying up before the literal end.
I just sat there quietly and listened. She laughed and cried as she worked out loud her plans for her final days and then we were interrupted by her family.
I hugged her goodbye and as I was leaving, debated on asking for my money back...
JUST KIDDING!
I'll never forget that lady.
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