Why I Can't Sleep
I'm truly beginning to worry about my next door neighbors. And, I suppose, myself as a result.
There's a very nice couple who live in the townhouse next door, adjoining mine. The first to welcome us into the neighborhood, they are quiet, devoutly religious, and dote on their many grandchildren. They've lived here for 13 years and love it. When the wife's father passed away last summer, I baked her cookies. We always stop and chat in the driveways whenever we catch each other out at the same time.
But in recent weeks it appears that they have been targeted for mysteriously strange and unlawful behavior. A few months ago their van was very obviously smashed into, and their other car was keyed along one side that same night. That same week they came home to discover their front door open, although nothing was taken or rifled through.
Tonight Joe just got home from his meeting and told me there is a Chanellos' Pizza delivery car in front of our house with a police car. The driver said somebody ordered a pizza and gave him the address to the couple next door, and when he arrived a guy jumped out of nowhere and robbed him at gunpoint. In front of our driveway, right while I was sitting here chatting online with a friend.
Joe talked to the Chanello's guy for awhile before he came into the house (the police car was blocking our driveway so he couldn't pull in and park) and he was asking Joe if our neighbors seemed like the kind that would set him up for a robbery. Joe explained that they were about as nice a couple as you could possibly meet, if maybe a little overzealously religious. He even told him about the day we first moved in, how the husband was washing his car in the driveway and Joe walked over to introduce himself, and the guy asked Joe "So have you received your gift yet?" And Joe was thinking, uh, gift? We get a free gift for moving into the neighborhood? Awesome! And Joe said "No, what's that?" an the guy beamed happily and said "Jesus Christ." Joe neglected to tell the guy that he is Jewish., not to mention agnostic, but that's pretty much the kind of folks I'm dealing with next door to me -- kindly religious types who suddenly seem to be targets for a lot of unwarranted crime-filled drama. Joe thinks it's only because their townhouse is on one end of the building, so being a "corner" house makes it easier for thugs to make a getaway around the building at that spot. Probably used their house number to call for the order and hid in their bushes and ran around the side of their place to escape.
Be that as it may, I'm still, uh, right next door to all the shenanigans. After chatting with my friend tonight I went downstairs to get a drink in the kitchen and I kept looking out the back door into the darkness of the night and getting a sudden fear like I was being watched. I had a wild instinct to grab the pair of scissors that was sitting on the kitchen counter and hide there angry, poised, and ready to strike until Joe came home. And this was all before I knew what was going on outside at that same exact moment, with Joe and the cop and the driver talking in my driveway about a man with a gun running behind my building. My instincts have usually been right about these things. So much so that it frightens me. Years of previously living in a bad neighborhood keep you on your toes. And this is a good neighborhood, too. Not great-great, but I feel safe here. Not like Pipers Crescent where I had drug dealers across the hall from me. Not like Ghent where we Joe and Lou and Goofy Steve and I used to take bets on whose car was broken into this morning. This is generally a nice place, and aside from a few cop car visits in the middle of the night, I feel remarkably safe here. Never had a problem so far, and after a year by now I would have had several in previous places of residence. Heck, Pipers Crescent was featured on an episode of COPS once!
And yet I worry about my neighbors. And I hate hate hate these premonitions.
And poor Chanello's guy.
There's a very nice couple who live in the townhouse next door, adjoining mine. The first to welcome us into the neighborhood, they are quiet, devoutly religious, and dote on their many grandchildren. They've lived here for 13 years and love it. When the wife's father passed away last summer, I baked her cookies. We always stop and chat in the driveways whenever we catch each other out at the same time.
But in recent weeks it appears that they have been targeted for mysteriously strange and unlawful behavior. A few months ago their van was very obviously smashed into, and their other car was keyed along one side that same night. That same week they came home to discover their front door open, although nothing was taken or rifled through.
Tonight Joe just got home from his meeting and told me there is a Chanellos' Pizza delivery car in front of our house with a police car. The driver said somebody ordered a pizza and gave him the address to the couple next door, and when he arrived a guy jumped out of nowhere and robbed him at gunpoint. In front of our driveway, right while I was sitting here chatting online with a friend.
Joe talked to the Chanello's guy for awhile before he came into the house (the police car was blocking our driveway so he couldn't pull in and park) and he was asking Joe if our neighbors seemed like the kind that would set him up for a robbery. Joe explained that they were about as nice a couple as you could possibly meet, if maybe a little overzealously religious. He even told him about the day we first moved in, how the husband was washing his car in the driveway and Joe walked over to introduce himself, and the guy asked Joe "So have you received your gift yet?" And Joe was thinking, uh, gift? We get a free gift for moving into the neighborhood? Awesome! And Joe said "No, what's that?" an the guy beamed happily and said "Jesus Christ." Joe neglected to tell the guy that he is Jewish., not to mention agnostic, but that's pretty much the kind of folks I'm dealing with next door to me -- kindly religious types who suddenly seem to be targets for a lot of unwarranted crime-filled drama. Joe thinks it's only because their townhouse is on one end of the building, so being a "corner" house makes it easier for thugs to make a getaway around the building at that spot. Probably used their house number to call for the order and hid in their bushes and ran around the side of their place to escape.
Be that as it may, I'm still, uh, right next door to all the shenanigans. After chatting with my friend tonight I went downstairs to get a drink in the kitchen and I kept looking out the back door into the darkness of the night and getting a sudden fear like I was being watched. I had a wild instinct to grab the pair of scissors that was sitting on the kitchen counter and hide there angry, poised, and ready to strike until Joe came home. And this was all before I knew what was going on outside at that same exact moment, with Joe and the cop and the driver talking in my driveway about a man with a gun running behind my building. My instincts have usually been right about these things. So much so that it frightens me. Years of previously living in a bad neighborhood keep you on your toes. And this is a good neighborhood, too. Not great-great, but I feel safe here. Not like Pipers Crescent where I had drug dealers across the hall from me. Not like Ghent where we Joe and Lou and Goofy Steve and I used to take bets on whose car was broken into this morning. This is generally a nice place, and aside from a few cop car visits in the middle of the night, I feel remarkably safe here. Never had a problem so far, and after a year by now I would have had several in previous places of residence. Heck, Pipers Crescent was featured on an episode of COPS once!
And yet I worry about my neighbors. And I hate hate hate these premonitions.
And poor Chanello's guy.
posted by Melissa at 2:03 AM
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