The Neighbor

Sarah met him on a Saturday - a clear cool Saturday in autumn. She had the day off and was allowing herself to sleep in that morning. However, she’d been awakened by the noise of wood being sawed and the hammering of nails. It sounded to her like they were working on her little house.

“Couldn’t be,” she said to herself groggily. The sun was fully up when she opened her eyes. Her clock said it was nine. She guessed it was an okay hour to be noisy. She had anticipated being annoyed and now had to settle that annoyance a bit in her mind.

She got up and padded over to her little kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. She peeked out of her front window. Oddly, she didn’t see anything. But there did seem to be a fair number of vehicles parked on the street and next to her little rental house.

She took a long, warm draught of coffee and sighed.

“Maybe I should get dressed...” she thought giving up on the idea of extra sleep. Sarah put on her favorite flowing skirt to below her knees with contrasting blouse and riding style boots. A light jacket was all she needed to be warm, especially since the sun was out.

She grabbed her mug of coffee and opened her door. Through the screen door she could hear the banging much louder and clearer. It was coming from next door. She pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto her oversized front stoop.

About five men were working on building a ramp up to the next door unit. It ran down one side of the front step away from her to the edge of the unit and then turned back to reach the ground level. One of the newcomers was a large burly man with his head shaved so it was dark & shiny. He caught her eye and smiled.

She smiled back hoping her reflexes were not too slow as to be considered rude. She looked around at the scene and noticed one of the men was in a wheel chair barking instructions - they could have been encouragements or insults, it was hard to tell. Regardless, they were all laughing while they worked.

His hair was dark brown with natural gold highlights, slightly curly and short. He was in a very modern, fast-looking chair, maybe not quite the “olympic” chairs she’d seen on TV, but this was no clunky wheelchair. He rolled it about with smooth and powerful grace. The tight t-shirt he was wearing showed off powerful arms & upper chest. He had a blanket over his lap. A chance look in her direction caught her staring.

She smiled & waved hoping to look natural. He waved back. His eyes were bright and merry. It was the eyes - she always fell for the eyes. Embarrassed, she turned and stepped back inside.

‘I guess I have a new neighbor,’ she mused to herself.

Sarah went out later that day with some girl friends for the evening, but when she’d returned home late, there was a moving van still in the street although all the moving in had, apparently, already taken place. By the occasional exclamations, the group was watching some sporting event on TV.

“Oh, that kind of neighbor,” her friend Monisha had commented as they pulled up and Sarah mentioned the news of her new neighbor.

“I guess,” Sarah said, laughing.

“Is that ramp new?”

“Yup! Woke up to its construction this morning!” Sarah said.

“Yea, like I told you - that kind of neighbor. Good luck!” said Monisha.

“Thanks,” Sarah grimaced exaggeratedly and laughed.

Just as she was saying good bye to Monisha, the party next door was breaking up. The burly black man flashed her a blazing white smile and gave both of them a small wave as he stepped out of the house and onto the newly built ramp. She might have been imagining it but Sarah thought he’d winked at Monisha before her window went up and she took off in her economy car down the street.

The other men had spilled out onto her neighbor’s front step and were chatting about the game that had just finished.

“Hey, better luck next time,” the man in the wheel chair was saying.

Sarah stopped and watched the men interact. They high-fived the guy in the wheel chair and made their way to the sidewalk. One vaulted over the ramp and made Sarah jump by landing almost on top of her.

“Whoa - sorry, dear! Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said laughing.

“Hey, Alan, are you purposefully trying to kill my new neighbor?” the guy in the wheelchair called. Sarah was somewhat surprised that he recognized her.

“Hi, I’m Sarah,” she said looking over at her new neighbor. Alan who had startled her, stuck out his hand and she shook it although she couldn’t seem to break eye contact with the wheelchair guy.

“I’m Alan,” he said.

“I heard,” she replied without giving him her attention. The other men whistled. Alan dropped her hand.

“Cold,” one said and high-fived the others. They were all laughing.

“We’re out of here,” the big guy with the bald head said, ushering the last men off the door step.

As he passed Sarah, he said in a soft voice, “Why don’t you go meet my boy properly?”

He was still on the front stoop waving to his friends. Sarah walked up the ramp.

“Hi! I’m Sarah. Nice to meet you,” Sarah said. They shook hands.

“Hi, Sarah. I’m Kenneth. I hope we didn’t disturb you,” he said.

“Not too bad, no. I just got home myself,” she replied.

“What do you do?” he asked.

“I’m an x-ray tech down at the main hospital. I look at lovely bones all day - when I work. It’s my day off. You?” she said.

“I work in a shop. I fix things,” he said.

“What sorts of things?” she asked.

“All sorts of things,” he said.

“Wow. I have like six appliances that don’t work…,” she said.

“Well, bring them by. If I can’t fix it here, I can take to the shop,” he said.

“Really?! Now I get to be the annoying neighbor,” she said.

“Now?” he arched an eyebrow at her.

“Oh, never mind. Good to meet you. I hope you like it here. It’s pretty quiet - when no ramps are being built!”

“Oh, you gonna be that way about it, eh?” Sarah laughed. She sat on the railing nearest her house and swung her legs over the edge.

“What are you doing?” Ken asked.

“Short cut,” said Sarah.

She gauged the distance and took a jump to her step.

“I see Alan’s not the only one with parkour skills,” Ken grunted.

“You should get along great, then.”

Sarah turned only to see him wheel into the apartment. She had been surprised by the harsh tone in his voice.

She hadn’t meant any harm. Then she considered that what she had done may have hurt his feelings. ‘Damn,’ she thought. ‘Great way to greet your new neighbor, Sarah!’

She thought maybe she had a way to make up…