Neighborliness

Posted on November 20, 2005 in Neighborhood

The son of the neighbor who just moved in down below is equipped with jump ramps and other paraphenalia for skateboards and small stunt bikes. He sets his equipment in front of the garages and invites his friends to perform their acrobatics. When Lynn needs to get her car out of the garage, he very politely moves them.

In silence.

Today, I helped him move his stuff. “We’ll be back in an hour or so.” He just looked at me. The whole line of his friends just looked at me. “Have fun until then.” Dark looks from a cluster of black-helmeted pre-adolescents. I felt like the boogie man or the strange fellow who their fathers warned them against.

They were gone when we came back an hour later.

Where this all stabs me is that I will never have a son to warn against anything.