Backwards

I really didn’t like the older guy who lived across the street when Kara was a baby. It wasn’t because he looked creepy or complained about the way I parked my car in the driveway. It was because his lawn was perfect. I know this is a shitty reason to not like someone, but, let me explain, ‘perfect lawn’.

He would mow, weed and trim that lawn every weekend and on Wednesdays. I thought it was overkill, but then again I only mowed the lawn when I couldn’t find my mailbox anymore.

His mowing got worse this one month in the summer. His house was right across the small street from mine and he always chose to mow the lawn right after Kara took a nap. She woke up every time he fired that thing up. I was so frustrated with it, but I was young and didn’t have the nerve to ever say anything. I just changed Kara’s nap time around his mowing.

He started mowing and weed eating his lawn every single day, twice a day. It seemed like every time I made Kara a bottle I heard him fire up the weed eater. I was at boiling point, but never said anything.

About a week into this man’s mowing frenzy I heard something that made my heart swell with joy. A rock had been pulled into his lawn mower and after one of the loudest lawn mower sounds I have ever heard…silence. Now when I say I jumped with excitement, i’m not just being dramatic for story telling purposes. I JUMPED FOR JOY.

I had to take a look out my window and see the mower-man’s frustration. I looked, but I didn’t see him. I went to the front door and peeked out the peep hole. What I saw next confused my senses. HE WAS MOWING MY LAWN! That rock that went into the mower, came from MY yard.

I walked outside trying to figure out if I should thank him for mowing my lawn or feel bad about the rock or angry he was mowing my yard or happy about the rock.

He saw me walking outside and stood up from inspecting his damage. “Hope you don’t mind i’m mowing your lawn. I already mowed all the people on my side of the street and I thought I would start on this side.”

I couldn’t say anything. I was too busy looking up and down the street at all the perfectly mowed lawns. I thought, “Ah, one of THOSE types. He mows their lawn to show all the neighbors what he wants the neighborhood to look like. Guilting us into lawn maintenance for the sake of re-sale value.”

“Uh…thank you.”

He just smiled and bent down to try to fix his rock destroyed lawn mower.

It was about a week later when I was outside checking my mail (because now I can find the mailbox) when I saw both sides of the street lined with cars. “Amway meeting.” I thought to myself. This guy REALLY needs to get a life.

I love to watch the news. I lived with a reporter for several years and was subjected to nightly news, daily news, newspapers, radio news…you name it. I love news because of him. I had been following a certain hit and run case that happened in Folsom. I was watching the noon news segment on it when I heard the firing up of that damn lawn mower, and this time I knew he was mowing my lawn again.
I looked over at Kara who was sound asleep in her play pen and decided I had enough of it.

I tore out the front door and there he was smiling at me. He must have seen the frustration on my face because he turned off the mower and offered an explanation.
“I guess I should explain this.” He walked over to me and he looked almost hurt that I was upset about the mowing of the lawn. “I come out here everyday at noon to mow the lawns because the news is on and I don’t want to watch the news.” He paused trying to find a way to explain. “My daughter was killed in Folsom by a hit and run driver. I’m sure you saw all the cars at my house…it was after her funeral. I’m sorry if we might have blocked your driveway. If you don’t want me to mow your lawn, I understand. I just need to get out of that house and do something or I will go crazy.”

I felt like the biggest asshole that ever lived. I told him he could mow my lawn as much as he wanted, as often as he wanted. I even silently promised to stop throwing rocks on the lawn too.

A couple weeks later they caught the guy who did it. They recapped the story and I cried when I saw my neighbor on the news explaining what happened.”I had dropped my daughter off right down the street from her girlfriends house. She was walking when the driver hit her. She was thrown the length of a football field. She was only 16 years old. ” “…they used the paint that was embedded in her body to identify the make and model of the car.” “…I want to thank everyone that helped find her killer and thank my friends, family and neighbors who have supported me throughout this process.”

To this day, the sound of a rock in a lawn mower just makes those memories come flooding back.