Waking up in the morning I stretch, stand, and peer through my window into that of my neighbor’s. Like mine, the windows of his house stood from floor to ceiling. The glass so impeccably crystal clear, that you could walk right into one thinking you were walking into an open doorway.

“Hey babe,” I say turning to my partner.

“Yeah?” she grumbles rolling over.

“You think Clementine uses the same window cleaning service as us?”

“I don’t know. Go ask him.”

“You know I hate talking to him…he’s such a surely old man that tries too hard to be nice.” As I say this Clementine walks into his kitchen, which is conveniently placed directly below our bedroom window. He waves, a small, tight smile on his face. I wave back, my smile equally as forced.


Later on as my partner and I leave for work and errand running, Clementine is outside on his lawn playing fetch with his very large German Shepard. Another awkward wave is shared between the three of us. I jump in the car before he could start speaking. My partner, Sal, is not so lucky.

“Good morning,” his voice is clear and void of any emotion.

“Mornin’ Larry,” Sal’s face is contorted into something between a smile and a grimace. Rolling down the window, I save her from anymore small talk.

“Come on babe. You are gonna be late.” She jumps in the car.

Clementine goes back to playing fetch with his large German Shepard. As we drive away I hear a loud crash. Stopping, I look back to see that the window looking into our living room is shattered.

“SON OF A B****!!” I whip the car around, jump out and tell Sal to go to work.

“Shye, calm down,” she urges.

“Excuse me,” I catch Clementine just as he retreats to his house. “We need to talk about how you are going to pay for that!”

“Well, I wasn’t necessarily going to…” he says reaching for his keys.

“What!! You are going to pay for that. You broke my f***ing window—“

“Babe, we’ll figure it out.” Sal walks up beside me. “Hey man, we will take you to court for this!”

“Go ahead,” Clementine mumbles as he quickly shuts the door behind him.



By the time, Sal got home my anger had turned to rage. Putting her bag down, she sat on the couch as I paced back and forth in front of her and the shattered window.

“We need to get that bastard back. He’s such a jacka** you know that? What does he mean he is not going to pay for the window?” I rant.

“Well what do you suppose we do?” Sal sits twiddling her thumbs watching me fume.

“I don’t know. I bet if the shoe were on the other foot he wouldn’t be all calm—“ I stop a light bulb went off in my head.

“What?” Sal is confused.

Not saying a word, I run around the house looking for something heavy. Giving up I run outside, Sal right behind me. There it is, a large oblong rock glistening on the curb.

I pick it up and run up to Clementine’s door. All the lights are off.

“Shye, I don’t this is a good idea,” she whispers.

I scoff, throw the rock, and run back across the lawn pulling Sal along with me.