Fiction Friday – Neighbours

This is the penultimate Fiction Friday for the year. Last one is next Friday, Boxing Day, then I will lay this experiment to rest. 

It started with a plastic bag full of oranges hung over the back fence. A new family had moved in, young couple with small kids. I thanked the wife when I saw her one afternoon as she pulled up after the school pick up run. I was introduced to their faces when the trampoline was built and they bounced up and down all afternoon. Then it was a bag of lemons in season. In return I made jars of marmalade. They became the neighbours you say hello to as you water the front garden or nod at when you’re mowing the lawn. It was handmade Christmas cards from the kids one year that I put on the dining room table. My wife loved the kids’ cards and made Mars Bar slice to take over. As the kids grew older, the trampoline was used less but bags of fruit were still hung over the back fence. When my wife died they all came to the front door to offer their condolences and brought with them homemade meals for the freezer. They moved away a little after that, new job opportunities for them both but at the last goodbye, he brought me another bag of oranges and I gave him the last couple of jars of marmalade.