wherein Liz experiences secondhand drama
Nov. 11th, 2014 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI think Diagonal Neighbor P threw her boyfriend out this afternoon.
Around 2:45pm, I opened my front door (which opens onto the house's central stairwell) in order to take my laundry to the laundromat... and discovered the area between the house's front door and the first step cluttered with stuff: a sleeping bag, a little camping roll of insulation, some pillows, some clothes, and a giant, unzipped duffle bag with its contents half spilled out onto the floor. While I was moving all this clutter onto the sides of the steps (so I could, you know, actually step out of my own doorway and wheel my little wire laundry/grocery cart after me), Downstairs Neighbor S opened her door and told me somebody had tossed it all down from the second floor very recently, and she thought Diagonal Neighbor P and her boyfriend had been arguing.
When I came back about forty minutes later with the portion of my laundry that I air-dry, somebody had cleared the mess from the stairs.
Another hour after that, I came home again with the rest of my laundry and saw Diagonal Neighbor P, her daughter, and the boyfriend out on the little strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the street. The boyfriend was loading his car. He came up onto the sidewalk and reached his hands toward Diagonal Neighbor P, who held up her own hands in a warding gesture and raised her knee when he tried to step closer. He then tossed one last item into his trunk, slammed it, got into the car, and drove off. Diagonal Neighbor P immediately began searching through the fallen leaves in the street near the curb.
Downstairs Neighbor S, who heard me come up the porch steps and into the house, said that Diagonal Neighbor P had been shouting something to the effect of "Give me the keys to my house!" I told her the boyfriend had left and Diagonal Neighbor P seemed to be looking for something on the ground. We agreed it was very curious.
I got my laundry into my apartment and went back out to ask if Diagonal Neighbor P needed any help. She said she was trying to find her second house key -- her apartment has two locks, and she'd only spotted one key so far. She didn't say anything about her (ex?) boyfriend, and I felt too awkward to ask, so I looked fruitlessly for a minute or so, then went back indoors.
I don't interact much with Diagonal Neighbor P, but I know Downstairs Neighbor S has disapproved of the boyfriend for a long time. She says he yells at the daughter a lot and is generally loud and unpleasant to live underneath. I have heard him shouting in the stairwell a few times, but cannot otherwise prove or disprove that assessment. Even so, that didn't look like a remotely amicable breakup, and throwing Diagonal Neighbor P's house keys into a pile of leaves in the street is a jerkass move.
I feel like I ought to do something nice for Diagonal Neighbor P, but I have no idea what would be appropriate. :-(
Around 2:45pm, I opened my front door (which opens onto the house's central stairwell) in order to take my laundry to the laundromat... and discovered the area between the house's front door and the first step cluttered with stuff: a sleeping bag, a little camping roll of insulation, some pillows, some clothes, and a giant, unzipped duffle bag with its contents half spilled out onto the floor. While I was moving all this clutter onto the sides of the steps (so I could, you know, actually step out of my own doorway and wheel my little wire laundry/grocery cart after me), Downstairs Neighbor S opened her door and told me somebody had tossed it all down from the second floor very recently, and she thought Diagonal Neighbor P and her boyfriend had been arguing.
When I came back about forty minutes later with the portion of my laundry that I air-dry, somebody had cleared the mess from the stairs.
Another hour after that, I came home again with the rest of my laundry and saw Diagonal Neighbor P, her daughter, and the boyfriend out on the little strip of lawn between the sidewalk and the street. The boyfriend was loading his car. He came up onto the sidewalk and reached his hands toward Diagonal Neighbor P, who held up her own hands in a warding gesture and raised her knee when he tried to step closer. He then tossed one last item into his trunk, slammed it, got into the car, and drove off. Diagonal Neighbor P immediately began searching through the fallen leaves in the street near the curb.
Downstairs Neighbor S, who heard me come up the porch steps and into the house, said that Diagonal Neighbor P had been shouting something to the effect of "Give me the keys to my house!" I told her the boyfriend had left and Diagonal Neighbor P seemed to be looking for something on the ground. We agreed it was very curious.
I got my laundry into my apartment and went back out to ask if Diagonal Neighbor P needed any help. She said she was trying to find her second house key -- her apartment has two locks, and she'd only spotted one key so far. She didn't say anything about her (ex?) boyfriend, and I felt too awkward to ask, so I looked fruitlessly for a minute or so, then went back indoors.
I don't interact much with Diagonal Neighbor P, but I know Downstairs Neighbor S has disapproved of the boyfriend for a long time. She says he yells at the daughter a lot and is generally loud and unpleasant to live underneath. I have heard him shouting in the stairwell a few times, but cannot otherwise prove or disprove that assessment. Even so, that didn't look like a remotely amicable breakup, and throwing Diagonal Neighbor P's house keys into a pile of leaves in the street is a jerkass move.
I feel like I ought to do something nice for Diagonal Neighbor P, but I have no idea what would be appropriate. :-(
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-12 04:31 am (UTC)Simple baked goods might be appropriate. If you don't want to bring the subject up, you could just say you had extra and were wondering if she (and the kid) would want any.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-13 03:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-12 12:58 pm (UTC)You could ask if the keys are still lost (while ignoring how they were "lost") and if she wants to signal that she'd like to Talk, that would be an opening. And of course if they are still unfound, you could help to rake the leaves in the hope of finding them.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-13 03:17 am (UTC)(Terrible thought: what if the boyfriend only pretended to throw that key and actually kept it? He couldn't get in, since Diagonal Neighbor P still has the second lock under her control, but he might be able to keep her out...)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-13 07:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-12 04:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-13 03:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-13 04:17 am (UTC)