Our Neighborhood Watch

The first time the stranger tried to warn me, I couldn’t hear. When I got out of the shower, I saw Thor, my tan pitbull, sitting at the door to go out. I didn’t have my hearing aids in yet and didn’t want to put them in because of my wet hair, but thought I’d be fine since we were just in the yard. It was dark, so I grabbed a flashlight and put Thor’s leash and harness on. He sniffed around the grass, while I stared at the stars above.

Everything was quiet. Too quiet, I knew. My mind conjured up images of bears, coyotes or mountain lions attacking us because I didn’t hear them coming. Even with hearing aids or good hearing, I doubted I’d actually be able to do anything about a wild animal attack. Animals are stealthy and fast. The chances of them being in my yard were low. Still, I couldn’t silence the mental chatter or stop the goosebumps spreading across my skin.

Getting used to the hearing aids had been a frustrating struggle and sometimes it bothered me how vulnerable I felt without them. I scolded myself for not grabbing them. A little dampness wouldn’t really hurt and if it did, I had the drying box. Better to dry them while safely locked in my house, than risk not knowing if something was coming. I took a deep breath. It was my own yard. I lived in a fairly busy part of town. I’d be fine. Still, I willed Thor to move faster. He just couldn’t settle on the perfect spot to poop. This patch of grass or that one. He moved back and forth, his nose buried in the weeds.

A chill prickled up my spine. I spun around, shining my light through the yard. Nothing. Thor finally selected the best patch of grass. I calculated how far we were from the door. Then how far we were from the woods. As soon as he was done, I’d pull him inside. If he wanted to go out later, I’d be better prepared and we could. For now, my thoughts kept spiraling and I needed to feel safer. A few minutes to calm down, where Thor and I could snuggle and I’d be good as new. Another deep breath and then I tugged Thor’s leash. He had other plans. Something in the woods caught his attention and he lunged towards it, pulling me behind him. The abruptness caught me off guard, and I dropped the flashlight. Then rooted down, leaned back, and pulled him. He barked. I could hear that. Not as crisply as with the hearing aids, but it was a noise I could hear. To some degree I could even feel it vibrating through me. Finally he realized we weren’t going anywhere and sat down. I reached for the flashlight.

A muffled voice caused me to leap out of my skin. I quickly flashed the light in the direction of the sound. It took me a moment, but the light landed on a man with greenish hair, ripped jeans, and a faded t-shirt. I couldn’t hear the words he said. He had his hands up. Maybe to show he wasn’t bad. It didn’t matter. What was he doing in my yard? I strained, but couldn’t make out the words. He kept stepping closer. I screamed and bolted, dragging Thor. He barked furiously and kept lunging towards the man, but I pulled him as hard as I could towards the house. I moved as quickly as I could. The muffled noise of the man grew louder, but none of the words were clear. I got to the door, shoved it open, pulled Thor inside, slammed it shut, and turned the lock. I leaned against the door a moment, breathing heavily. I slid down to the ground. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Thor bounced around, barking and licking my face. His tail wagged so fast it looked like a blur.

I didn’t know what would happen next. Would the man knock on the door? Would he go away? What did he want? He shouldn’t have been there. The familiar staticky noise of first putting in the hearing aids greeted me. I grabbed my phone, prepared to call the police, and then checked the windows. Nothing. I turned the volume on the hearing aids up, took the pepper spray I should have had this whole time, and slowly opened the door. I scanned the yard with the flashlight in one hand, and the pepper spray ready to press in the other. Nothing. All the doors and windows were already locked. Keeping my phone with me in case I needed to call the police, I tried to relax.

The next day, I still felt a little cautious walking into the yard. Being able to see all around me and hear, helped me relax. I even felt a little bad. Perhaps the man was having car troubles or something innocent. If that were the case, I hoped he found the help he needed eventually. I most likely couldn’t have done anything for him anyway, and people should really all have cell phones and professionals to call. Trusting strangers isn’t helpful for anyone.

As I prepared dinner for Thor and I, I heard a knock on the door. Followed by Thor barking. After selecting the best settings for the hearing aids, I peered out a window that gave me a view of the door. It was the green haired man. I considered ignoring him, but then thought if he were a robber or something, it might be better to know I was home and armed in some way. With the cell phone ready to call the police, and the pepper spray in hand, I called out “Who is it?”

Thor sat by the door, wagging away, and trying to open it with his nose.

“I’m a…uh neighbor. I live a couple houses over.”

Thor’s ears perked up at the sound of the stranger. That answer didn’t quite give me what I needed to decide about opening the door.

“Look, I’m really sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was walking, saw you outside and wanted to warn you.”

I could make out the words, but it was a little tough, especially with Thor’s whining. So I reluctantly opened the door a crack, holding Thor in by the collar. I liked having him there to intimidate strangers, though his wagging tail and goofy grin hardly did that. “Warn me about what?”

The man smiled, first at Thor and then at me. “When I was walking, I saw some shady looking people. It kind of looked like they might be casing the houses on this street. They might try to break in or steal things. Maybe I’m wrong. Since you were outside, I thought I’d warn you. Now, I feel bad about freaking you out.”

“Why do you think they’re…casing houses?”

Thor kept jumping towards the screen, whining for attention.

“Is it okay to pet him?”

I sighed internally. So much for intimidating. I kept his leash by the door, so I clipped it onto his collar and let him out. He jumped up on the stranger, with his tongue lashing out, stretching towards the man’s face. The stranger bent down, accepting the affection.

“It’s hard to explain. I don’t like to judge by appearances but something seemed off about them and they looked way too interested in the houses. Like they were trying to look into windows and stuff.”

“I’m not too worried. I have a whole security system and nothing worth stealing.” That wasn’t really true, but I didn’t quite trust him. What if he was working with these people and trying to get information out of me?

“That’s good. And it might be nothing. I only thought to say something since you were outside. I thought about just leaving it alone, but you seemed so scared, I felt bad.”

“Why were you walking in the dark?” The question sounded a little accusing, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“With work and all, it’s really the only time I have. I wanted to get some steps in. Try to be healthy.” His smile was disarming and he gave off a genuine feeling. These qualities would work favorably for a criminal, but could also be a sign he wasn’t. Thor, on the other hand, had been completely won over. This was his new best friend, like every human he came across. He really wasn’t the best guard dog. If this man was with the sketchy group he talked about or if he was actually the group entirely, it’d make sense to check the dog of the house could be won over. I’d stay cautious. Surely, an innocent man would understand that. It seemed harmless to be a little friendly, though.

“My name is Diane, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Alex.”

The timer on the stove beeped. The air smelled a little like something burning and I remembered Thor’s steak sizzling in the frying pan. “Oh, I should probably go, before that burns. Thanks for warning me.”

I watched him walk away through the window, wanting to see which house he went to. While I wasn’t sure I could trust him, I felt grateful he didn’t act weird about my reaction last night. I knew he couldn’t see the hearing aids and didn’t want to expose any potential weaknesses to him in case he was lying.

In case there were people looking to break in, I went to work making the house more secure. My dad was fixing up an old car to sell, and I convinced him to let me keep it at my house for a while. This way it’d always look like someone was home. I always left some lights on and kept the tv on while I was away. I didn’t actually have a security system, but I printed a sign to put in the window, hoping people would look quickly at the logo and not think about it too much. The blinds stayed closed, the doors were always locked, and anything valuable was hidden even more than normal. Hoping Alex wasn’t involved, I got one of those “beware of the dog” signs too.

After a few days, I felt a little calmer and almost dropped my guard. That’s when I saw the sirens and later heard the news that a house three doors down had been broken into. Did they select that house of all of ours, or were more break ins coming? I decided to talk to Alex. Besides, checking he did live at the house he said he did would offer some credibility.

He answered the door when I knocked. A bit of relief washed over me. Actually living in the neighborhood didn’t completely insure his innocence, but it seemed more high risk to steal from neighbors.

“Hey, how’s it going?” He greeted me.

“Okay. Did you hear about Mrs. Braxton’s house being broken into?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I told the cops about the guys I saw. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything particularly distinctive about them, so it might not be enough to go on.”

“Do you think they’ll break into more houses?”

He shrugged. “It’s possible. Definitely happens often enough that the same areas get targeted.”

I nodded. “Maybe we should create some kind of neighborhood watch or something?”

“Yeah, sure. I’d be happy to help.” A gray cat walked in figure 8s around his feet. Pets didn’t guarantee someone was good, but seeing the cat comforted me somehow.

“Great. You seem to know a lot about this.”

“My dad was a cop.”

The soothing feeling of relief washed over me again. There’s always a chance he could still be untrustworthy, but at least things were lining up.

I didn’t really know my neighbors well, but it was time to change that. Over the past few nights, I’d been on edge. Every time I took Thor out, I had pepper spray in hand. I had the hearing aids turned up for any noise. I monitored the windows constantly. No one should live like that. As I knocked on doors and introduced myself, I found some others had been in fear like I was. Some were completely oblivious, but most were willing to come together. We shared ideas about different ways to make our houses look safer. We exchanged numbers so we could call each other if we saw something suspicious. They shared a bit about schedules. Since some of us liked walking for exercise or because of pets, we set up a little patrol schedule. Everyone would have a buddy.

I decided to go for patrol walks with Alex since he liked Thor. Some of the others already had friendships or planned to go with spouses, so it made sense.

One night we were talking about this new skateboard trick Alex was working on, and some crazy drama with his band, when Alex froze. My eyes followed the direction of his. A man wearing all black crawled into the large hydrangea bushes surrounding Megan’s house. An unfamiliar car with an unfamiliar man was parked a couple houses away. I told Alex we should keep walking in case the man in the car was a lookout. Megan was an emergency room nurse. Therefore, she was almost never home.

I texted the police. Our area had that option and I was scared of calling so close to the criminals. Alex made note of the strange car’s license plate. Then we walked up to Steven and Gloria’s door, Megan’s neighbors. We talked as loudly as we could without being unnatural about how fun this party at Steven and Gloria’s would be, hoping the burglar might hear and think a ton of people were on their way.

Thor growled and pulled me towards Megan’s bushes. Maybe he knew people didn’t belong in bushes. I stood firm, leaned back, and pulled him. My feet dragged forward. I fought against the pull. Thor could be very strong, but usually he listened better. My heart raced. I wanted to stop the man from breaking into Megan’s house, but I didn’t want to end up face to face with him. What if he hurt us to get away?

“Thor, no! Come on. We’re going this way.”

He continued to snarl and pull forward. He’d never acted like this before. Alex turned on a flashlight and pointed it towards the house, which I was grateful for as Thor pulled me closer to the darkness that hid the man. In the beam of light, I saw the man’s eyes peeking out from the bushes and something glistening like a knife. I screamed. The loud throbbing of my heart cancelled out all other noises. I pulled Thor back desperately.

I didn’t mean to scream, but once I did, I couldn’t pretend it was over nothing. “There’s someone in the bushes!”

I prayed the man would run the other way. Try to sprint away from this whole problem. My heart was beating too fast. Alex grabbed Thor’s collar to help me pull him back. The man’s eyes remained. Maybe he was also scared and frozen in place.

“Get the fuck outta here!” Alex yelled at the man.

Steven opened the door. He must have heard all the noise. He was a hunter and had a rifle in his hands. “The cops are on the way!”

Finally, the man sprinted from the bushes. He should have ran behind the house if he wanted to escape, but he headed towards the getaway car instead. The getaway driver was already taking off down the street, planning to leave him behind. The man ran full speed after the car, but the car didn’t stop. A loud pop cracked through the air, and I dropped to the ground, pulling a whimpering Thor close. Alex put his arms around both Thor and I, covering us. The loud wail of sirens filled the air. Lighter pops continued.

“It’s the car backfiring,” Alex said.

I pulled out my hearing aids, unable to handle how piercingly loud the sirens were as they got closer. Before the driver could turn off the street, police cars blocked the road. The car stopped. The man chasing after it, turned the other way. I thought he’d try to hide or duck behind a house, but he kept running down the street. I guess with all the fear he couldn’t think straight.

The man in the car jumped out and ran too. The police got out of their cars. One ran after one man, a couple ran after the other and one stayed in place. The two thieves turned into yards. One tripped over a child’s toy left in the yard and collapsed hard face first. The other disappeared from sight but after several minutes the police returned with the man in handcuffs.

I realized I’d been holding in a breath, and gasped for air. Thor wagged his tail frantically, barking in all directions.

“Nice job guys!” Steven yelled from his porch. Several neighbors had stepped out of their homes. A couple cheered as the criminals were shoved into the cop cars. Most stared with wide eyes or held up their cell phones, presumably filming. I put my hearing aids back in and adjusted the volume.

“They’re the guys I saw,” Alex said. “I doubt they’ll come back.”

I smiled and felt so light with calm flooding through me. Our neighborhood was strong and now that we were working together, we couldn’t be messed with.