When I first moved into my house in Tohatchi, I bought a baseball bat. Not to play ball, but to protect myself. I also slept with chairs leaning against windows and an X-acto knife on my bedroom table. The lights were on at all times and I kept a friend on the phone when I entered my house at night. You could say I was mildly paranoid.
But after living here for a month, I am now brave. I don't enter the house with a baseball bat anymore. (Although it still sits by my bed.) I don't stomp loudly around the house when I go home to scare the bad guys lurking in the shadows. I even sleep with my bedroom lights turned off. I think gettng dark curtains has helped, because I can't see outside and I know people outside can't see in.
But tonight, at 9:15, I heard a loud rap on my front door. I was sitting in the living room with the windows open. I yelled out, in what I hoped to be a harsh, tough voice, and asked who it was. No answer. The sharp knock repeated on the screen door. I considered running into my bedroom and hiding, but decided to get the baseball bat and be brave. Just as I was about to get up for the bat, I heard a soft voice call out, "Hello?"
It was my 4-year-old neighbor Kalindra. She and her adult brother were taking a walk outside and she insisted on stopping to say hi to me. My jitters got the better of me and I kept the screen door closed between us for a minute while talking to her, in fear of some bad dude jumping out of her handbag or something. But I relaxed and realized she just genuinely thought we were friends.
I told her to hold on and rummaged through my cupboard, praying I'd find something sweet. Nothing. I opened the door, bent down and apologized to her. I told her to come back on Sunday. I'll have cookies for her by then. She nodded earnestly. We shook hands and she left with her brother and pink handbag.
There is nothing sweeter than a friendship that doesn't expect anything from you than a hello. I had to type this out, because I'm constantly reminded that there's a simpler route to life. I had to type this out not to illustrate how scared I am by little girls; rather I needed to show how pitiful I am for not keeping cookies around for little girls who knock on my door.
this is freakin hilarious. i can totally imagine you doing that since thats what we used to do when we were young (stomp really loudly in the house to scare away bad guys) hahha.. good stuff. I have a few swords stocked up and some broken (however pointy) staffs that i can mail over there lol.
Posted by: dennis | August 26, 2005 at 12:01 AM