Another excerpt from my past...The end of an era has arrived and we await the arrival of a new chapter in our colorful, quiet beachside community. My lawn mowing, bikini clad neighbor has never been the picture of sanity nor self worth. She has always kept to herself, making no more than eye contact with the stay-at home moms and geriatrics living nearby. We all know her history of domestic violence and restraining orders, we all decided her lack of self respect when they hauled her off on that stretcher while her handcuffed hubby stood watching. We all assumed her drug and alcohol addictions when she made a habit of coming home after midnight or not at all, filling her recycling with nothing but empty glass bottles (my bathroom window looks out at her trash cans) , smoking cigarettes on the porch midmorning while scowling at the sun, lying on the concrete of her driveway in the late afternoons (to stop the spinning? or maybe to enjoy the buzz). For never having one conversation with her, we knew a lot about our neighbor.
Well, we thought we knew her pretty well until the coroner's van pulled up in her driveway in the wee hours of the morning Monday. Those cops that showed up last weekend? The firemen that broke down her door? Well, they all left that night without checking the open rafters of her garage. Not until the last cop did one final sweep of the house was the real character of our neighbor revealed. No one saw her tying the rope on that sunny Sunday morning, nobody heard the chair fall over or the creak of the wood against her weight.
Her family showed up yesterday. Some say they could hear her mother wailing from two blocks away. We're waiting to meet the new occupant of the house next door. We think we know who will arrive when the funeral is over. We think we know him pretty well, too. His restraining order has expired.
Well, we thought we knew her pretty well until the coroner's van pulled up in her driveway in the wee hours of the morning Monday. Those cops that showed up last weekend? The firemen that broke down her door? Well, they all left that night without checking the open rafters of her garage. Not until the last cop did one final sweep of the house was the real character of our neighbor revealed. No one saw her tying the rope on that sunny Sunday morning, nobody heard the chair fall over or the creak of the wood against her weight.
Her family showed up yesterday. Some say they could hear her mother wailing from two blocks away. We're waiting to meet the new occupant of the house next door. We think we know who will arrive when the funeral is over. We think we know him pretty well, too. His restraining order has expired.
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