Neighbor Hater

Around five o'clock that evening (see last post), the same nice red Ford pulled up again, but this time there were two familiar faces inside. I recognized both as mothers of children in my oldest daughter's class at school. KS was so excited that she immediately threw on her flops and headed out to say hi. My seven year old was not far behind.

It seems as though the two - one the wife of the renter/buyer and the other her friend - were checking out the place, possibly taking measurements or something like that. My daughters briefly chatted with the Moms, and then KS and KJ came back inside. I tried to send my daughters back out with a plate of freshly baked cookies for the Moms, but the truck was already gone.

No less than two hours later, Drew called. He sounded strange.

"Hey, uh, did you, uh, see some people looking at the house a few hours ago?"

"Yeah! We know them - well our daughters are in class together. What a coincidence!"

"Yeah, she said that she talked to you and your daughters..."

"No," I interrupted, "I didn't talk to her, but my daughters did. Why? What's up?"

I was starting to get a sick, sinking feeling.

"They backed out of the deal."

"You're kidding!!"

"It's so weird. I just don't know what to think. They were so excited to see the house for sale; they said that they wanted to buy the house three years ago when it originally was up for sale. They said it was a dream come true. They gave me a huge down payment and everything."

"Wow, that is strange."

"Yeah. So I was wondering if you said anything to her or your daughters..."

"Like I said, I didn't talk to her."

"Yeah, well the whole thing is just so strange. I don't know what to think. Maybe she said something to your daughters?"

"Well, what did they tell you? Why did they say they were backing out?"

"Oh, I don't know. Something like she just didn't want to move right now - it was too much of a hassle or something."

"I don't know what my daughters talked about with them, but it sounds as if something else is going on here, Drew. Maybe her husband lost his job or something? That happened to a friend of mine one day before she was supposed to close on a house."

"I don't know. I mean, now I have to go put the signs back up and everything. It's all just such a hassle. Your daughters didn't say anything?"

"Sorry, Drew. I can't help you there. I can't imagine what they would say to make those people back out of the deal. I'm sorry the deal fell through, though."

"Oh, that's okay. Yeah, you're probably right. Sorry to bother you about this. Oh well, I guess I'll be putting the signs up again."

"Okay, Drew. See you later."

Just as weirdly as it began, the conversation was over.

Now I don't know what kind of wacky weed my ex-neighbor is smoking, but could he seriously have thought that either my daughters or I would have purposely gone out there and talked these people out of the deal? Worse yet, did he think that we would have gone out there and berated these people or cursed at them until they were thoroughly offended enough to back out of the deal? Even stranger than that, is it possible that my ex-neighbor crazily thought that we "had it in for him" so we said bad things about him or his family until these people were so thoroughly disgusted that they backed out of the deal? None of these scenarios are pretty. To be silently accused of such mischief is frightening.

Or did the would be new neighbors get a glimpse of who lived next door - namely me and my family - and couldn't stand the thought of spending the next decade next door? Well that is a deal breaker. Better that they found out now before they moved all of their furniture into the house. It's surprisingly difficult to maneuver a mattress up a flight of stairs.