Neighbors

In my parents’ house, we have neighbors whom I haven’t seen since they moved in. You see, we live in an area that used to be for family only. Our house is in between my paternal grandmother’s house and her sister. The lot our abode stands in was owned by another of my grandma’s sister who lives out of the island. My parents bought it back in the 1980s because my father decided it was an ideal location for us.

In the back are two properties that belong to my grandma’s siblings, too. (It is normal for families then to have many children and my grandma had 4 sisters-including a set of twins, one brother and one half-sister.) The property that was beside our backyard got sold as payment for a debt that my aunt (dad’s cousin) incurred. So her brother and his family who lived there had to move and someone else built their own house. The new neighbors became friends with my mom because we shared a fence. They got to know them at the start but things soured because of that fence.

Anyway, the neighbor decided to rent out their house and in moved a young couple with a baby. I haven’t seen their faces ever since and last year during the start of the pandemic, I sort of got to know them better. I figured them for having Christian beliefs due to the services they play on Sundays, the worship music they sing to and the friends who come over and their activities. I can hear them through my bedroom because mine is situated in the back of the house, as well as in the kitchen.

When I’d be cooking or doing the dishes, the wife would be cooking, doing the laundry or doing stuff. She’d call her husband either Christian or Dad, the daughter is Ella. And she actually gave birth last August to a baby boy. Who knew she was expecting? Haha! This is why I am fascinated with them because I haven’t seen them at all. Now, Ella talks better and straight sentences compared to the lusty baby cries when they first arrived. I’ve seen their pickup truck and can identify their voices but cannot for the life of me describe how they look. I don’t even know their family name!

For me, it is weird not to be friends with neighbors but we’ve lived next to them for years so I guess it will remain so until they leave. I mean, I no longer live at home but whenever I come here (which is daily, haha!) I can still hear them, learn that their household help has not returned, hear their in-laws come over, listen to Ella’s temper tantrum and soon I guess, the baby boy will be walking and talking.

I will update this post once I’ve seen them. Promise.