Is it too late to get a good fence?

[robotech_master]

I've only been up about three and a half hours, and my day has been more kafkaesque than most whole months. It has to do with my next door neighbors—a young woman and her boyfriend, both of whom are African-American—and a court date I had today.

When they first moved in, our relationship didn't get off on the right foot to start with. They kept thumping on my wall, because they felt I was playing my stereo too loud. It's true that the walls are just about as thin as a Japanese paper house's, but I always felt I was playing at a reasonable level. They did not feel so, however, and it culminated in an angry lecture at my front door from said neighbor, after which I tried to make sure the volume was even lower than I considered reasonable.

I thought our relationship took a slight turn for the better when several months ago, I was called over there to help clean up broken glass from a smashed TV set during boyfriend troubles. At that time, the neighbor asked me, if you hear any commotion from over here, call 911, because she was afraid of what her boyfriend might do to her. And I've been dutifully doing that ever since, because she never told me to stop.

This went on up to a month or so ago, at which point she berated me angrily for calling police on her due to the noise, as she now has a citation for disturbing the peace. Which rather startled me, because I was only doing what she told me to do. I apologized profusely, wrote a lengthy note on the response form I got from the prosecutor's office regarding the citation explaining that it was all a misunderstanding and I'd just as soon the citation be dismissed (if it had been about the noise, I could just have thumped on the wall the way she did me).

But a couple of weeks ago I got subpoenaed for today anyway as a witness. So, after transferring to the wrong bus and having to pedal like mad to reach the court building in time, I went into court today, to explain to the prosecutor I'd like the case to be dismissed. I met my neighbor in the courtroom, tried to explain to her I'm here to try to get the thing dismissed, and she went all passive-aggressive on me until the bailiff told us both to shut up. (A co-defendant in the case was her boyfriend—but he wasn't there. There was a bail bondsman there, explaining (if I heard right) that due to paperwork issues, she was unable to get him released from the jail he's currently in down in Arkansas. Or it could have been an unrelated case that she was discussing with the judge, I suppose.)

The prosecutor came in, the neighbor and the prosecutor stepped into the hallway, as it was her intention to plead guilty due to needing to get out fast due to a family emergency. When they came back in, I went into the hall with the prosecutor to explain again I'd just as soon the charges be dismissed. Between these conversations, I overheard that the reason she was in such a bad mood is that her father is dying in a Chicago hospital and she needed to catch a plane flight in an hour to be with him. We went back into the courtroom, the prosecutor asked the judge to dismiss the case, the judge dismissed it, and the neighbor stormed out of the courtroom without responding to my offered condolences.

On the bright side, I got the case dismissed. On the dark side, I really don't think that associating me with those circumstances did my reputation any good in the neighbor's eyes, especially since I'm the reason she even had to be there in the first place. I'm going to try to avoid her as best I can from now on, but given that we share a paper-thin wall, it's not going to be easy.

Comments

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I'm so sorry to hear that. It sounds like an amazing case of miscommunication. If it makes you feel better, your neighbor _did_ ask you to call 911, so it's certainly not entirely your fault. That said, I'm sure that doesn't make you feel that much better. :-(