Hello, Neighbor! by Valeria Shmagun

"Do you think if
I'm a good person, Sheila?" A man looked really excited by something, even thrilled, he walked past a woman very fast from right side of the small room to the left, hardly even looking at her, but she already knew, how chaotic his eyes seemed at the moment, they were literally sparkling.

To be fair, he shouldn’t have looked at her to know that she’ll answer him for sure.

“Y-yees, Sedric” A woman answered pretty confident. Well, at least, she hoped she did. But the sad truth were, her voice unexpectedly made a crack and after she realized that, she stumbled, like standing suddenly became too hard.

She really didn’t want to upset him with her answer. They were neighbors for the last 13 years, so knew each other very good. She thought so before.

“Yes, Sedric, you are a good man, you are!” She made kind of desperate, from the way it looked, attempt to make her previous words more believable and please a man.

“Sheila, Sheila, Sheila, Sheila” Her neighbor repeated her name with viscous intonation, his words flowed like molasses, causing her insides to freeze. That were those real butterflies in a stomach everyone always talks about, but love has nothing to do with it.

“We’re practically a family, Sheila! You shouldn’t be afraid to answer me sincerely. See – I am not. You are the worst human being in the whole world, dear, and has been proving this to me every fu**ing morning for the past 13 years with your infinite repairs and constructional works! For that time you could have rebuilt our whole block – and what do I see here, in your house – nothing has changed from the way it was when you moved in! Not a single thing! Look at that basement – it’s so old that can collapse on your head any minute now. Such a tragic accident! And, I promise you, Sheila, it definitely will, right after you explain me everything about all this noises that have been coming out of your house all that time! And I make damn sure you will be completely sincere with me. I and that beautiful medical kit of yours, such a sharp scalpels – good thing to have a surgeon as a neighbor, right, Sheila? That were your first words to me? Well, I’ll show you what a specialist I am!” Man’s eyes looked insane and maniacally, she believed in his competence 100%.