My neighbors don't compliment my yard anymore. When we first moved in they did, but now they give me angry looks, as though how I treat my yard forces them to do work they normally wouldn't have done. To be honest, I don't care about their yards. I don't do it for them or to be better than other people. I do it because I enjoy it. Its good exercise, gives me a feeling of accomplishment, and the end result looks great.
Our neighborhood isn't huge. I don't know anyone with a riding lawn mower, we all use push mowers. Its not uncommon to hear multiple engines going simultaneously on a Saturday morning, so I didn't think anything when I heard the lawn mower running at my neighbors. Our yards are divided by an 8' privacy fence made of inexpensive wood slats, and if you get close you can see into his back yard. I normally don't look, but it seemed odd that the engine of his lawn mower had been running for several minutes, but he wasnt moving through the yard. I stood up from the garden box where I was weeding my carrots and moved to the edge of the fence. Peeking through the slats I could see him standing there, his knuckles white as he gripped the handle. His back was to me, so I couldn't see his face, but he seemed as though he was staring off into the yard.
"Perhaps he's thinking" I thought to myself. Our argument about edging around the fence line last month left us not speaking, and I didn't feel overly eager to strike up a conversation about his behavior. I went back to my weeding trying to put his stasis out of my mind.
I heard the engine sputter as though it was running out of gas. It had been nearly 20 minutes and he was still standing in the same location. What was he doing? I began to worry that he had some sort of stroke, something that caused his body to move into some sort of paralysis mode, and immediately a sinking feeling entered my heart. I hoped I hadn't caused him permanant brain damage or something. I walked over to the fence, calling out to him. "Mike, you okay?" I wasn't sure he could even hear me over the noise of the engine. "Mike!" I yelled louder. Still he stood silent, like a great stone golem waiting to be awoken.
I moved to the fence gate on the edge of the yard, debating whether I should open it and trespass. If it was a medical emergency he would forgive me, right? I unhooked the latch and pulled the heavy gate open. "Mike, I'm coming in" I called out as loud as I dared. I looked behind me to see the couple across the street watching me. I gestured toward them to come over, hoping that together we could reason with my habitually grumpy neighbor. They didnt move, whispering to each other from the safety of their position in the distance.
The lawn mower sputtered again, and I moved closer. "Mike, are you okay?" I didn't know much about him other than the fact that he was recently divorced, had joint custody of a single boy about 10 years old, and worked as some sort of mechanic for one of the airlines at the local airport. His hulking shape intimidated me, and I could feel the hairs on the back of my head raise as I came closer. The engine sputtered again, this time cutting off. The silence was almost deafening. Suddenly, I was keenly aware of the sounds all around me. Birds chirped in the trees, a car drove by on the street behind me, and my footsteps crunched the grass below my feet as I stepped toward the silent man frozen in place.
"Mike?" I called out, trying to push the shaking from my voice. Something had me spooked, and I couldn't figure out why. I kept my distance from him, moving in a circle to see his face. I gasped as I saw his eyes. They were covered in a thick yellow puss, like massive cataracts caking his corneas. A wasp was sitting on his left cheek, chewing on his lower eyelid. He stood there unmoving, unaware of me, oblivious to everything. "Mike?" I heard the quiver in my voice. "What happened to you?"
I reached for my phone in my back pocket but realized it was sitting back in my house on the charger. I cursed myself for not being better prepared. Moving back to the fence gate I called out to my neighbors across the street. "Something's wrong, call an ambulance!" They looked worried and pulled a mobile device from a pocket. As they dialed a look of horror split across their faces and I turned just in time to see Mike's massive body barreling down on me. He tackled me to the ground and everything went black.
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