What's Your Next-Door Neighbor Story?
Behind The Eight
The kids next door have names like Jessie and Jordan. They're college-age but don't go. My wife and I are 25 and we bought this house for the nursery because she was still pregnant.
We're on the end of our row in the West End of town 10 blocks from where downtown is bad. There's a bar on the corner and the elementary school a block down where I walk the dog but Amy stays in.
We usually hear them, Jessie and Jordan. Conversations mostly, loud sex through our thick plaster walls just once, and starting last night it's pool balls cracking, dropping in pockets, rolling down plastic tubes towards the front.
There's a black curtain over their door you can see from the street. We have one too but it's white. There's a TV in their front room, but we have nice new furniture that matches our walls and trim. The pool table sounds come from that part of their house that should be the dining room. We have antique pecan chairs and a table and hutch with good glass and china.
We sit in the living room and hear their TV and we talk about our day and how we're depressed. Amy's sick this week. I hate my job and talk about quitting. The cat buries herself in the fringed needlework pillows that match our new sofa.
"I think they got a pool table," I say. I picture their half of our twin. They watch TV from the table and wear hoodies and cargo pants and it's dark in there I bet it's a place you can crash. Like when we were dating.
We should move the pecan set downstairs and bring up the TV. That way we can eat and watch cartoons and Cheers like we used to. That way we can crash upstairs on old couches and smoke and play pool and 8-bit Nintendo with games from the 80s. We'll put action figures in the hutch and put our china and glass in the coal room. In the spring we'll watch baseball with the windows all open even when it rains.
These things won't really happen and so I don't say them. We are young professionals. We are 25. Amy's sick this week, same as last. The cat lifts her head and buries it again and I talk about quitting.
by Have a Next-Door Neighbor Story?
As part of our new webcomic, Next-Door Neighbor, we thought it appropriate to have a little contest. Tell us your best true next-door neighbor story, and the winning tale will be matched with an artist and transformed into a webcomic and included as the final installment of Next-Door Neighbor.
About Next-Door Neighbor
No matter how close or how far, we all live next to someone, and we all have a Next-Door Neighbor story. With that in mind, editor Dean Haspiel asked some of his favorite storytellers and cartoonists to create their favorite NDN stories so we could share them with you.
The Fine Print & Contest Rules
By submitting an entry, you are granting SMITH the right to reprint or republish that entry online or in print, as well as make any necessary edits. See SMITH's terms of service for complete details.
This contest ends September 1, 2008. Prizes are not redeemable for cash and must be accepted as awarded. Winners are decided at the discretion of SMITH judges and all decisions are final. SMITH reserves the right to change the contest rules. Enter as often as you want. SMITH reserves the right to reprint or republish all entries.
Comments
Jeanette_Cheezum says,
This is probably a summary of a lot of people's lives. Find a
happy medium so you'll both still love each other. It's never too late. You will open the eyes of most. They will look around and think do I need all the things I used to love. Or would I miss what I have now?
Christopher_Cocca says,
hi Jeanette. thanks for commenting. Thankfully this was a few years ago, and we clung to each other in what was a very tough time and are so much the better for it. We even use the nursery now.