My town is made up of Manhattan and Brooklyn transplants, and most of us are just a bit self-centered. For example, when my spouse and I moved into our house, one of our neighbors--whose lawn touched ours--made no effort to say hello. The neighbor had our phone numbers, our names, our email addresses--all of these bits get shared on "the back road." There was total silence. However, Marc and I had received misinformation about a parking question. One morning, we walked out to our car to discover a typed document explaining (with a veiled threat) that we had encroached on the neighbor's parking terrain. The letter included a copy of the neighbor's most recent land survey. This was how the neighbor (ultimately) introduced himself to us. By contrast, a woman who was not actually our neighbor--but who lived nearby--baked cookies and greeted us with a handwritten letter; the letter shared a brief story about her many years in Maplewood. I grew fond of this woman. I didn...
For a long while, I believed that my neighbor had ghosted me. This was the neighbor who recently vacationed on "Pig Island." We had a stretch where we regularly dined together--then the text messages became terse and un-encouraging. As a conspiracy theorist, I imagined that I had done something outrageous and offensive (and I'd never learn the truth). But my neighbor *does* continue to narrate his life for me. The narration remains breathless (and it happens whenever we pass each other on the sidewalk). "I'm hosting 25 guests for a Golden Globes watch party and sleepover--then I'm off to Manila for a month." "I said that my boss runs a toxic workplace, and he retaliated by reporting me to Child Protective Services." "My meeting with CPS caused me to have a heart attack--I was briefly, officially dead--but now I'm back on track and working full-time in a Kindergarten classroom." Once, I tried to rehearse for a brief encounter. I ...