For months, Myra cleaned up the garbage her neighbor kept leaving on her property. She was furious, exhausted, and ready to snap. But when Tom’s own yard became the scene of a shocking mess, she discovered there was more behind his cruelty than she knew.
My neighbor and I had been arguing for almost a year. That sounds dramatic, I know. When people say they have a problem with a neighbor, most of the time it is about loud music, parking too close to the driveway, or a dog that barks at every passing leaf.
I wish mine had been something that simple. Mine was trash. Actual trash.
I am Myra, 34 years old, and I used to think of myself as a patient person. I watered my plants every morning, kept my porch swept, and waved at people even when they barely lifted a hand back. I liked my little house because it felt like the first thing in my life that was fully mine.
After years of renting cramped apartments and saving every spare dollar, I had finally bought a small place with a white porch, a narrow lawn, and a patch of hydrangeas I had planted myself. Then Tom moved in next door. At first, I thought he was harmless.
He was the kind of man who gave short nods instead of greetings and seemed to always be carrying something heavy, a toolbox, a cooler, a stack of boxes. He was not rude in the beginning, exactly. Just careless.
That carelessness started at the edge of my property. For some reason, he had decided that the edge of my property was the perfect place to leave his garbage bags before collection day. At first, I tried being polite.
One evening, I saw him dragging two black bags toward the strip of grass between our houses. The bags sagged and bumped against his legs, and one of them already had something wet leaking from the bottom. I stepped off my porch and tried to keep my voice calm.
“Hey, Tom, could you please keep your trash on your own side?” I asked one evening. He looked at me like I had asked him to move a mountain. Then he shrugged.
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