Fences

Everyone does it. I do it. Your best friend does it. Your parents probably do it (though your mother vehemently denies it).

Let me explain.

Today is the sort of day that sun worshippers pray for. The weather is the most perfect I have seen all month: there is nary a cloud in the sky, the sun is white hot and smack dab in the middle of it all, with an intensity like creases in the middle of your forehead.

I was enjoying it for a while, until I heard our neighbor step out onto her deck. I had been reading, (two bugs, I'm not sure which kind, landed on the book and appeared to be putting on a live sex show in front of my eyes. I shooed them away) and snapped the book shut and hurried inside. I first heard their sliding door squeak, because it does not so much slide as it does squeak (I know because the last time I baby sat for them, which was five years ago, it took the jaws of life to pry that thing open, and it's probably that sort of thing one puts off until you've an armful of plants and cursing yourself for not oiling it sooner), and then I heard her step out and place her pots of foliage onto the deck. It's not that I dislike this woman, it's just that I did not want to be bothered. She hadn't bothered me yet, but I had a feeling that she would soon, as all friendly neighbors are apt to do.

"Hello there!" she'd call out. "Long time no see!"
"Ah yes," I'd say, shielding my eyes from the sun with my book.
And she wouldn't miss a beat. "So who's that boy I saw with you?"

It's not that I don't enjoy talking about the boy that she saw with me. It's that I recall (because I can't quite forget it) what my mother told me a few days ago. "Our neigbors are snoopy," isn't quite what she said, but it was the gist of it. "I haven't been doing anything outside for them to be snoopy," (notice I said outside), and she gave me that look, like, Even so. Basically, it was a warning that people were watching and talking, though about what, I'm not exactly sure. Like I said, I hadn't done anything for anyone to be gossiping about.

People gossip even without meaning to. I think it's part of our human nature, like jealousy or the genderless appreciation of breasts. I don't like being a part of it, though I'm sure I have been at some point. It's just a different perspective when you're on the other side of the fence.