My next door neighbors, who have not occupied the house in ten years, and mostly live back East, stopped me to ask about their recycling can. I was restraintful: I said I didn't know or notice where it can gone. They show up four or five times a year for a couple of days, and act as if I am their housekeeper. This despite the fact that they have a housekeeper who comes in once a week to the empty house and polishes it to perfection. They presume on neighborliness, though they show none themselves. I guess I'm grateful they haven't turned it into an air bnb, but I'd like real people next door for security, sense of friendliness, and peace of mind. Every time their house alarm goes off I wonder, and yet I've learned to let it be. Their alarm company will call it in. I don't actually think anyone has succeeded in robbing the place. And I long ago decided it was not my responsibility, and though I have a key, I haven't used it since the first year or two; once when their gardener needed to turn off the watering system and once when the owners called and asked me to check if the house had been broken into. That was risky of me, and I thought better of it after. I won't do that again.
So I bear up silently with their clear assumption that I am somehow guarding their property. But they are on their own as far as I'm concerned.
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