Connecting dots
Sometimes I think people believe their back gardens are an extension of their homes, that anything they say or do between the four wooden walls that surround their little plot of land is private and impenetrable. They seem to forget there is no 'lid' to their box, no slits between the slats of their fences. The people who live behind us are a perfect example of this.
For the past several years I have heard the goings on of their private life whether I have wanted to or not. I have heard the many times the male of the house has gone to the back to make a private phone call and while he has shut the sliding glass door to the house so that his "other half" could not hear, he seems to not realize I am on the other side of the wall. I try to let it be known that I am there by a cough or speaking to my cats, watering, etc but he is too deeply involved in his world to realize he is also invading on my silence.
I happened to be there when he and the "girl" broke up and got back together several times (it can be hard to keep my opinion to myself. There have been times that I want to act as a confessional of sorts and learn against the fence to whisper to the girl " do you really want him back? he had some other harpie over here just last week"- but I always say nothing) . Last year I was outside smoking when she broke the news that she was pregnant and he balled her out for telling his mother first before coming to him. (I wanted to shout "Do you REALLY think she didn't know what she was doing by going there first?!" when she pretended not to know why she had missed her period and started speaking about how it would be beneficial for her to move in with him and move his male room mates out). There has even been times where the husband and I had to close up all the windows to our house rather than to hear their midnite sexcapades in their pool.
I know roughly the size and shape of these people as they walk past the slats in the fence but I have never gone up to the cracks and looked thru. This past week when I got home from work one day I made the move to pop my head over the fence before even thinking about what I was doing. I could see the handle to the pool skimmer moving along the fence. The "male" was out there.
"Hi" I said, my head coming over the edge and resting on the wood. The male looked up at me scared for a second and then smiled and came over, sticking his hand up. Up until this point I never realized that I had somehow created faces for what I assumed these people would look like. If I had passed these people on the street I would have no clue who they were. Seeing the male for the first time this up close and personal was almost odd. "Hello, I'm Bret"
"Greta," I replied taking his hand. " I just figured it was about time I met you... I feel like I must know you... congrats on the new baby by the way." "Thank you. Its nice to meet you... you should come over sometime, maybe come swimming" (not after all the things I know that go on in your pool.. from sex to dirty baby diapers and used tampons). He was older than I had pictured. His face aged from the sun and he had one wonky eye.
As if on queue the "girl" appeared. She came shuffling along in flip flops, jeans shorts too high in the back and too low in the front. She tossed her self in a chair pool side and lit a cigarette.
"She's our neighbor," Bret tells her. I wave, say it was nice to meet her. She smiles but I can tell she hates me just because I am female. She too looks nothing like I imaged. There is a short conversation between all of us and then I say it was nice meeting them and let myself down from the chair. I haven't gone anywhere, I am still in my back yard when they start talking like I am not even there.
"she was nice," he says, "She said she felt like she knew all about us and wanted to congratulate is on our son." I Shake my head. How can they go one talking like I cant hear them? They MUST see me thru the fence- they have to. and it isn't 'exactly' what I said. Oh well... I guess that's once mystery solved for the week. I no longer have to imagine what our white trash neighbors look like when they argue, I will know exactly. I half expected them to be a little more courteous because they are the loudest people I have ever lived beside (when they talk they yell) but as the evening wore on and they continued on speaking, I could tell my head popping over the fence had no baring on how they will proceed in their back garden. Oh well...
Have you ever heard or caught your neighbors doing anything not realizing you were inches away?
For the past several years I have heard the goings on of their private life whether I have wanted to or not. I have heard the many times the male of the house has gone to the back to make a private phone call and while he has shut the sliding glass door to the house so that his "other half" could not hear, he seems to not realize I am on the other side of the wall. I try to let it be known that I am there by a cough or speaking to my cats, watering, etc but he is too deeply involved in his world to realize he is also invading on my silence.
I happened to be there when he and the "girl" broke up and got back together several times (it can be hard to keep my opinion to myself. There have been times that I want to act as a confessional of sorts and learn against the fence to whisper to the girl " do you really want him back? he had some other harpie over here just last week"- but I always say nothing) . Last year I was outside smoking when she broke the news that she was pregnant and he balled her out for telling his mother first before coming to him. (I wanted to shout "Do you REALLY think she didn't know what she was doing by going there first?!" when she pretended not to know why she had missed her period and started speaking about how it would be beneficial for her to move in with him and move his male room mates out). There has even been times where the husband and I had to close up all the windows to our house rather than to hear their midnite sexcapades in their pool.
I know roughly the size and shape of these people as they walk past the slats in the fence but I have never gone up to the cracks and looked thru. This past week when I got home from work one day I made the move to pop my head over the fence before even thinking about what I was doing. I could see the handle to the pool skimmer moving along the fence. The "male" was out there.
"Hi" I said, my head coming over the edge and resting on the wood. The male looked up at me scared for a second and then smiled and came over, sticking his hand up. Up until this point I never realized that I had somehow created faces for what I assumed these people would look like. If I had passed these people on the street I would have no clue who they were. Seeing the male for the first time this up close and personal was almost odd. "Hello, I'm Bret"
"Greta," I replied taking his hand. " I just figured it was about time I met you... I feel like I must know you... congrats on the new baby by the way." "Thank you. Its nice to meet you... you should come over sometime, maybe come swimming" (not after all the things I know that go on in your pool.. from sex to dirty baby diapers and used tampons). He was older than I had pictured. His face aged from the sun and he had one wonky eye.
As if on queue the "girl" appeared. She came shuffling along in flip flops, jeans shorts too high in the back and too low in the front. She tossed her self in a chair pool side and lit a cigarette.
"She's our neighbor," Bret tells her. I wave, say it was nice to meet her. She smiles but I can tell she hates me just because I am female. She too looks nothing like I imaged. There is a short conversation between all of us and then I say it was nice meeting them and let myself down from the chair. I haven't gone anywhere, I am still in my back yard when they start talking like I am not even there.
"she was nice," he says, "She said she felt like she knew all about us and wanted to congratulate is on our son." I Shake my head. How can they go one talking like I cant hear them? They MUST see me thru the fence- they have to. and it isn't 'exactly' what I said. Oh well... I guess that's once mystery solved for the week. I no longer have to imagine what our white trash neighbors look like when they argue, I will know exactly. I half expected them to be a little more courteous because they are the loudest people I have ever lived beside (when they talk they yell) but as the evening wore on and they continued on speaking, I could tell my head popping over the fence had no baring on how they will proceed in their back garden. Oh well...
Have you ever heard or caught your neighbors doing anything not realizing you were inches away?