My Neighbor

I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and see my neighbors’ tv on. Nothing is playing except the screen you see when your cable breaks. What happens is just a non sequitur, it doesn’t make any sense to me. This used to happen often when I lived in my old house and there when was a thunderstorm.

The next day it was a Saturday, and when I woke up in the morning, I put on my slippers and ate hashbrowns and bacon. It was 9 am, but my parents haven’t woken up yet. I saw my neighbor come out his back door and he was watering his tomatoes--I assumed they were tomatoes, but they could have been strawberries. I was about to go skating, but decided to go ask why my neighbor would stare at the tv like that. He mumbled, “I haven’t done anything like that. I go to sleep in bed everyday at 8:30 and I don’t remember getting up.” I added “up at 2 am, Staring at the broken tv.”

He said he honestly does not remember and told me to leave his backyard and that it’s private property. He is like an introvert. Once my mom asked how he was doing, and he just said mind your own business. He also looks very old. The bags under his eyes are big enough to carry groceries, and the wrinkles that fold over each other are is enough to hold paper clips and staples.

I skated to the park and played some basketball. I won by 6 with this other kid that was a year younger than me. I went home and ate dinner. At night I went to sleep wondering about why the old neighbor would lie about the tv and why he would wake up in the middle of the night stare at his broken tv. I woke up again and saw the old neighbor staring into his tv. I really didn’t understand and wanted to prove that he was lying to me that he was up at midnight. Although he told me not to go onto his property, I had an urge of curiosity that moved my feet toward his house.

I tip toed through the backyard and got in by the door. He forgot to close his door. Only a bug shield. I slowly walked up behind him and shouted “ha I caught you!”. He did not respond. I wondered again, wondered why. I walked closer to him and stopped when I was next to him. I looked closely at his face and saw his eyes were open, lots of blood vessels. He was drooling all over his shirt and had very hard deep breathes from his mouth. His hand, held the remote tightly. I waved my hand in front of his face, but he did not respond. I slapped his arm ,and he suddenly stuttered. He jumped up from his couch and said, “Wha what's going on? Why are you in my house!” I asked why he was lying to me; he said he has no idea why he is in front of the tv. He said his wife used to watch television with him. He suddenly froze. He whispered, “Can, can you see that face in the tv… who is that!” I didn’t see any face; to me it was just a blank screen flashing very fast. The vibe the old man is giving off--strong, adrenaline fused scares, he shivers but does not move his eyes. He stares into the tv yelling at me. Asking me who that is. I did not know what was going on, so I decided to retreat out of his house.

I left slowly behind him, he did not notice. I carefully stepped back upstairs, and went to sleep--I closed the curtains. I woke up the next day a little bit before my parents, I tried not to think about that old neighbor. I did think he was going crazy because of his old age. I had to give myself a reasonable explanation to what was going on or else it would drive me crazy too. I went to watch a movie with my friends in the afternoon and I read some books in my room.

Sirens were going off. Loud. Bright. Frightening. My room would be lit up by flashes of red and white lights. It was 5 in the afternoon. My parents had gone went out shopping, I was at home alone. I walked outside to see the old man’s body lifted out of the house with his arms flopping around, for he was dead. The ambulance stopped the sirens but kept the lights on. They were in no rush to leave since there is no body to revive, just one to dump at the morgue. I asked the officer what happened to my neighbor. He retorted, ”I guess the years just got to him.” I asked him for details:, he said his heart stopped, probably a heart attack. I looked around at the other neighbors, the kids, the parents, the dogs. The ambulance drove away and the police stuck yellow tape around the house.

At night, I was curious about the tv again, and since the old man wasn’t there anymore, I am not afraid to go in. I snuck down stairs when my family was asleep, and went in from one of the windows at the dining room. They kept that window open maybe to let the new dead people stink to come out of the floors. I walked towards the couch and the tv, I felt the top of the tv. It was a little warm, like it had been running a little ago. I couldn’t find the remote so I pressed the power button which turned the tv on. I cycled through the channels a little, every channel was broken, nothing but that scribbly screen. The only thing that was changing was the number in the top left--indicating the channel you were on. This tv was an old tv, old like that old neighbor, who used to own it.

Suddenly the channel button got jammed inside, and I couldn’t stop the channel changing. It kept rotating through all the channels, 1 to 20. As I stood in front of the tv trying to fix it, I stepped back to the side of the couch, where I was able to see two unclear shapes. The shapes were just a slight shade darker than the rest of the tv. I stared into the tv for another 2 minutes. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. I saw a person. No. I saw two. I saw two people that did not move in the tv. I looked closer and was able to see a young woman and a young man. They were both smiling. Then tears came dripped down from their eyes. I was so focused I tried to move my feet to run away, but they did not listen to me, I had no control over my body, just my mind. Suddenly the tv popped and I saw a flash bright as lightning, and following was smoke that came from behind the tv. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, then realizing what had just happened. I ran out of the house and back to my home. My parents heard the loud thumps on the floor and went up to my room to ask me what I was doing. I said I got thirsty and I drank some milk. They let me go, but they didn’t even check the sink for a cup.

 
The next day the senior services came and had a yard sale. The couch was sold for 15, the tv was busted, sold for 3. I watched as they moved everything out of the house. Cars parked on every side of the street. One even on my driveway. I lived a quiet day in my house, then forgot about it when I went to school the other day...

~ John H.