When I moved into my house, there was a detail I didn’t know about: Lois and Johnny. They live next door to me, in a rented duplex. I have no idea how old they are, but I imagine Lois is in her sixites. Doesn’t matter, because they both look much much older. Johnny, incidentally, is Lois’ son.
Both suffer from some combination of mental disorders, senility, and perhaps drug abuse. Both live in a strange haze, both are very literal, and very childlike, Johnny more than Lois. Lois has talked to me on several occasions, usually rambling things about Johhny’s health problems and pray for her, and voices telling him to buy a dresser, which she says they don’t need (if you must have voices, it seems to me you could do worse than ones that suggest furniture purchases). She has also come over to ask if she can collect “shell-less snails” (slugs, I guess) from behind our garage - I’ve never had the courage to ask what they are for. She constantly insists she wants us to be “very best friends ever”.
When we first moved in we tried to be polite and friendly. The previous owner of our house had a vegetable garden, and Lois asked if she could have some of the vegetables. We told her sure, she could have some and then found she’d stripped the garden more or less bare. We didn’t really say anythign, because they do seem poor and needed the vegetables more than we did (though they are never without cigarettes.) The vegetable garden is gone now, because we didn’t really have the time or know-how to maintain it.
I’ve talked to other people in the neighborhood about them. One woman offered them some cloths, but says Lois won’t take anything. I know someone called social services out to them, and the woman from there asked me some questions about her, but apparently if the person refuses any aid, there’s nothing Social Services can do, and Lois refused it.
I feel really bad because these people make me so uncomfortable. We don’t go out in our yard much because we don’t want to encounter them. It doesn’t help that my dog, who doesn’t like strangers to begin with, HATES Lois - I’m not sure why, but possibly because she smells like cigarette smoke (none of our friends smoke). There are rumors she has a bunch of cats in the apartment (I’ve never seen any) so if that’s true, that might also be why.
I just don’t know what to do. Like I said, I feel like a heel for wanting to avoid them as much as possible. Obviously these people need help (and I mean medical and psychological help) that they aren’t getting, but there’s really nothing I can do about that. And I always feel like, you know, I just moved here and didn’t sign on to take care of these people, which I’m not trained to do anyway. It’s bad, but it’s the truth. I hear the little voice saying, “You know, leaving some food or something on their doorstep wouldn’t kill you, you hypocrite,” but then a more evil voice says, “But then they’ll NEVER leave me alone.” It drives me nuts.