The Curse Of Pear Street
All kinds of strange things going on
Not long ago my wife was looking out the front window of our living room, fairly late at night. She noticed that the front door of the house directly across the street from us was standing wide open.
As the elderly lady who lives there parks her car in the street, and it wasn’t there, it was clear that she wasn’t home.
I put on my hat, for it was raining like mad, and ran over. Closing her door for her.
Yesterday afternoon I was writing here on Substack when there was a knock at the door. It was another neighbor, this one a bit more distant.
She told me that the house directly behind us had its door open. No one was home, and the two big dogs that live there were out roaming the street. She’d apparently been unsuccessfully trying to get the dogs back home for half of an hour or so, and asked for my help.
Step one in my mind was to get the door closed, as it was quite cold and wet out. No dice. One of the dogs, a large dog, returned and wouldn’t let me anywhere near the door. Standing watch, guarding it.
We focused on catching the other large dog instead. About another half of an hour later, and with the assistance of two additional neighbors, we finally got him trapped in a fenced backyard.
I got him on a leash, and with him by my side the other dog allowed me to approach the back door. I coaxed them both inside and got the house closed up against the rain and cold.
This morning, as my wife was getting ready for work, an alarm started blasting its shrill chirps throughout our house.
A water alarm with the plumbing system, in the unfinished part of our basement.
Specifically a wastewater alarm.
Luckily the alarm led us to stop running any water, so the problem was caught before any water actually backed up into the space. It remained contained within the plumbing system.
Thank God.
And the plumber will be here in about an hour to check it out.
But my hunch is that the City’s system is what has actually backed up, because they were working on it about a block away, just the other day.
I’ve got to say, I’m starting to wonder if my little neighborhood has been cursed!
Sounds like it's blessed to me. You were able to help 3 times.
This is more like a poem than story Mr. Bailey.
I think lots of people been cursed because they are cursing themselves.
We can think of neglacted infrastructure and lack of externalized involvement.
But what about the soul? That's whats truly neglected in peoples lives and needs attention.
And it affects us all, just like in your story , with the backflow valve plugged.
Great story!