The House Behind Ours

The obnoxiously loud humming of a lawnmower’s motor woke me up, again. Apparently the entire neighborhood decided that they needed to spruce up their lawns that week. Monday, Mr. Thompson mowed his lawn for what felt like hours as I tossed and turned trying to fall back asleep. This must have inspired Mrs. Garcia who felt that her hedges needed trimming on Tuesday, but instead of using pruning shears she decided to use an electric trimmer that was definitely louder than those really annoying fireworks that screeched on the Fourth of July. And on Wednesday, you guessed it, Mr. Smith decided to hire a crew of people to completely remove a palm tree, though I couldn’t really blame him because I always thought it looked slightly out of place as well. Moral of the story is, while I understood that my neighbors had nothing else to do because of the whole “pandemic, country on lockdown” thing, they really didn’t need to be making so much noise before 10 in the morning! Everyday started to feel the same; wake up to the joyous sounds that my neighbors decided to create way too early in the morning, look online to see what monotonous assignments I was expected to complete, only do half of the assignments and decide that I deserved a break that lasted the rest of the day, and then spend the rest of the day playing video games or doing something that took my mind off of the harsh reality of the world around me. Before the entire country was sentenced to quarantine, my life was finally falling into place; it was the last three months of high school (which are supposedly the best memories of senior year), I committed to my dream college, and I even figured out that going to the gym and working out was actually a fun thing to do! I knew that it was too good to be true when I was genuinely enjoying school and still maintaining a 4.2 grade point average AND a social life. I knew something was bound to happen, but I never would’ve guessed that it would be something that major. What was supposed to be spring break turned into spring and summer break, and at this point I hadn’t left my house in a month and a half. My social life was practically dead because I was never a big fan of texting; I was more of a face-to-face person, which was strange to see in my generation. Basically, the only people that I had truly talked to were my parents and my sister for the last two months, and I was dying to see something change in my life. I had already rearranged my room 6 times, and even painted the same wall twice. I played so many games of Fortnite that my Xbox literally overheated and did not turn back on. Something needed to change and after much thought I concluded that I needed to start getting more exposure to the sunshine. It was the transition month between spring and summer, so the weather was beautiful. I had never been much of an outdoors person. Growing up, I always played indoor sports, and everytime I went in the sun my skin turned red as a tomato because of my lack of exposure to UV rays. Regardless of how much sunscreen I put on and however minimal time I spent outside, I was always bound to get burnt. Anyways, you get the point that I didn’t particularly enjoy being outside very much, but I figured that if there was ever a good time to try something new then why not during a global pandemic. My mom suggested that I start a garden, and we had a perfect patch of dirt in the very corner of our backyard right in front of the

 fence that butted up to the backyard of the house behind ours. It sounds confusing, but if you picture it then it makes more sense. I was completely uneducated about how to grow any type of flowers or food, so my mom suggested that I started with succulents because those required the least maintenance, and knowing me I would forget all about my garden and everything would die. I started my garden on April 24th, and I wrote it down because I thought that if I kept a physical record of the watering schedule and growth of my plants that I would be more motivated. By May 2nd, they had already grown much larger. Gardening became a part of my routine. Everyday at noon, I went outside with my favorite playlist playing on my smartphone and watered my plants as well as embraced the sunlight (and yes, the first week I did get sunburnt). On May 5th, I thought that this routine would be the same. I walked outside with my music playing and began to water my plants, however suddenly I heard a voice from the other side of the fence. I had no idea who lived in the house behind ours, so I was not expecting this male voice to be calling out to me. Because of this, I ignored it and just kept watering my plants, turning the volume of my music up on my smartphone. I usually spent at least 20 minutes in the garden, but the voice coming from the house behind ours made me feel a little awkward. I finished watering the succulents, and turned around to leave, but the voice called out to me again. It was deep, but not too deep. I could tell this was a boy who was likely just a little bit older than me. “Excuse me, is anybody there?” the voice questioned. It was almost as if I had forgotten to speak because of how little I did it these days. I stuttered and responded, “Erm, yes? Hi, I’m here.” The boy seemed surprised to hear the voice of a young woman like me, as he probably hadn’t spoken much either. “I heard your music coming from the other side of the fence, great choice in songs by the way, but I was just wondering if I could borrow an egg maybe? I was right in the middle of making brownies from scratch but I ran out of eggs.” I was extremely curious to see who this boy was, so obviously I said yes and practically sprinted inside to find an egg to give him. In less than a minute and 12 seconds (an estimate but probably less time than this) I returned to the fence. “I can’t really throw the egg... haha...” I awkwardly laughed. Before I knew it our eyes met each other. His were a beautiful seafoam color, and they sparkled in the sun as his head popped over the fence while he waited for me to hand him the egg. “Well, hello there...” he said under his breath, looking directly into my eyes as well. If one good thing came out of the global pandemic 5 years ago, it was the boy who lived in the house behind ours asking for an egg, and then 3 years later asking me to be his wife.