That one neighbour from the pit of hell

Image is mine

"Our neighbours are our closest family," they said, which is quite true. When something goes wrong in the home, the first set of people that the police will question are the neighbours. They are also the ones whom outsiders will seek clarity from because we don't just live; we exist together.

In our shared existence, we learn to tolerate one another despite our diverse personalities and characters. However, there's just that one neighbour who loves to intrude, and no matter how you try to restrict them, they're worming their way in and getting you into trouble one way or another. In my experience, that neighbour was Dorothy.

Dorothy lived next door with her husband. They were yet to have a child, and being a full-time housewife with not many responsibilities, Dorothy had a lot of time on her hands to gossip and foment trouble. My mother, however, was working and was rarely ever home. We saw Dorothy befriend our mom. She would usually visit in our parents' absence and pick up some of our home designs and utensils. We were kids then and couldn't possibly challenge her not to because we thought she was a friend of our mother.

With time, my mom noticed the missing items, and when we told her it was Dorothy, she instructed us not to let her in again. Dorothy would often visit, but we'd tell her that my mom was at work with the keys. My mom continued to tolerate her, even when Dorothy went around the neighbourhood branding her as a bad mother who was only concerned about her job.

Not only that but Dorothy claimed and bragged to people that every time my mom was away, she was the one tending to us and feeding us because my mom couldn't cook. This same Dorothy was eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner in our house at the time. Even after we stopped letting her in, she would wait for my mom to return from work and come for dinner.

Dorothy crossed the line when she was caught in an affair with another woman's husband in the neighbourhood. In a desperate attempt to exonerate herself, she dragged my mom into the scandal. It was a Saturday morning when the man's wife came to our house in a fit of rage. My mom, although surprised to see her, welcomed her in.

She took her seat and then spoke angrily. In her words, we were briefed on how Dorothy claimed that when the woman's husband tried to molest her in her home, it was my mother who came to her rescue and drove him away.
My mother was speechless; being a woman of few words, she went in and brought her work ID card. Upon showing it to the woman, she saw that my mother was not small, and I heard her tone soften.

At that point, she started confessing how she had come to cause trouble with my mother, even after several people warned her against it. According to her, she thought my mother was working with Dorothy to destroy her marriage, but after she spoke to my mom, she saw Dorothy for the liar that she was. The whole incident marked the end of the friendship between Dorothy and my mom, as my mother did well to warn her to keep off.

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