Encounters at the front door

Courtesy of pixaby.com

When i moved to my current neighborhood in the foothills of the Alleghenies on the edge of the Shenandoah Valley, i walked around introduce myself to my new neighbors. I knocked on one door and a voice called "come in!". I opened the door and found unattended bacon sizzling in a skillet on the stove. "Hello?" I said tentatively. "Come on in- we're in the living room". They paused the TV when i stood in the doorway, a complete stranger. "I'm your new neighbor, Jonathan. Thanks for just.... letting me walk in".

The man of the house laughed, "Well we figured if you were gonna slaughter us all, you wouldn't have knocked!" They assured me that if we ever needed anything we were welcome to ask them for help.

A year prior to that, i was walking around another neighborhood- a gated lakeside community where my grandmother lived- accompanied by my girlfriend (now wife) and my sister. As dusk approached, we decided we were lost and decided to ask for directions. We knocked and waited on the porch steps. A figure inside came to the door, peered out at us, and walked back down the hall. As heavy footseps returned to the door i felt apprehensive and told my sister and girlfriend to back away toward the road in case a weapon was involved. The man had a frightened, angry, confused look on his face as i quickly apologized and explained that we were lost. He replied "i don't know man- i'm from California. I ain't used to people just walking up to my door you know, i'm from California, man."

Last week i approached a man shoveling snow off the driveway of his rental house in the tiny rural town i call home. Due to my connection to the local grapevine i knew that the old farmhouse was empty, in bad repair, that the previous tenants were "druggie lowlifes" and had trashed the place, and that the distressed landlords might be tired of the hassle and open to a deal. I asked the man if the place was available to rent and he went in the house to get his wife, who was the negotiator. While i waited, i finished shoveling out their drive.

The woman called out to me from the porch: "Who are you and how do you know anything about this place?" I replied that i didn't, really, which is why i was asking. "Yeah but how do you KNOW?" I realized that i was dealing with a paranoid who was probably not familiar with small town life. "I work right there next door every day- i can see that it is clearly vacant". She regarded me coldly and then snapped, "NO! it is not available! NO!"

I said "o....k. have a nice day." To the husband i muttered "Good luck". And handed him back his shovel.