I'm that neighbor that you hardly feel like you've got a neighbor, because the only time my fellow neighbors or landlord in my case hears my voice is only when I offer a good morning greeting on my way to work or dropping my kids off at school in the morning, in other words, I love minding my business because I'm one person that has no strength for gossip or unnecessary socializing, I guess this is because I've once lived in a compound filled with nosy and noisy neighbors so I know how easy it is for too much familiarity to breed contempt, so I choose to rather act Invisible than be available, especially in times of quarrel.
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Good for me, I now live in an apartment that houses just me and my landlord's family alone, which I am very delighted for, fewer people, less trouble, so I thought, not until I was about to go to bed one night but the noise from my landlords' apartment wouldn't let me, it was apparent a quarrel was going on,
I tried to stay in my ignore mode but the noise kept on getting intense, with sounds of blows accompanying the insults they were throwing at each other, that I wondered what would have led to this intense fight, maybe I don't know much but the six months I've lived with them in the same compound has been peaceful and they tend to be people who also have calm personalities, with that thought, I grabbed my nighty covers and headed to their apartment, surprising even myself.
It was indeed intense, their children were wailing from the inside while their parents kept exchanging blows, somehow the eldest managed to pass me the keys through a torn window net, and with it, I gained entrance and tried to stop the fight among the couples as I was the only adult around, I wished my husband was with me, he is much stronger to separate these two, I thought to myself, but he was far away at work, it dawned on me that I had no choice than to face this fight.
I tried talking to them but they paid deaf ears, I even got physical trying to pull the wife away from her husband's blow but got several blows on my face and arm as well, it wasn't until my phone hit the ground, did these two got separated, I had dropped my phone outside initially with my flashlight on because power was out, while they fought inside with just a faint light from a rechargeable lamp, in the heat of the moment, my landlord had rushed out, picked up my phone and tried using it to find his phone so he could call their village people to report his wife, but the wife thought the phone was his and in her anger, she collected it and smashed it on the floor, while a gasp of my "phoneeeeeeeeeeee" left my lips as I dropped my hands in surrender not trying to stop them from fighting anymore, it wasn't until that moment did they finally listen to my plea of them not fighting.
My phone was the sacrifice for peace to reign, it was very painful to me, only if I had kept minding my business, I wouldn't have git faced with auch expenses and heartbreak, they settled their fight but I had to pay the expensive price, from then henceforth, I promised to never derail my rule of minding my business no matter the circumstance, they can sort themselves out.
Image 2 is mine