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\nAn apartment hallway | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
When Caitlin\u2019s neighbor, Stacy, takes it for granted that she\u2019ll watch over her child when Stacy is busy, Caitlin allows it to give the boy some stability. But when Caitlin isn\u2019t around and the little boy draws along the hallway walls, Caitlin is left with a $500 fine. Determined to teach Stacy a lesson, Caitlin gets her revenge.<\/p>\n
Stacy, my neighbor from across the hall, had this habit of letting her little boy run wild in the hallway.<\/p>\n
\nAn apartment hallway | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s safe, Caitlin,\u201d she\u2019d tell me. \u201cAnd anyway, it\u2019s our version of playing outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she would close the door on Nate. Usually, I would hear giggling on the other side, making it known that Stacy had company.<\/p>\n
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\nA little boy standing in a hallway | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
\u201cI just need some alone time,\u201d she said to me one day when we were downstairs in the laundry room. \u201cI\u2019m a grown woman who has needs. I\u2019m sure you understand. You\u2019re a single mother, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did understand. But I would never let my little boy wander around the hallways unattended. As much as we all vaguely knew each other, there was still that element of unsafety.<\/p>\n
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\nA frowning young woman | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
My son, Jackson, was a little older than Nate, but we felt bad watching him wander around by himself. He would always be walking around aimlessly, clutching a worn-out teddy bear.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom,\u201d Jackson said when he was playing with his train set. \u201cLet\u2019s just invite him to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was glad my son had suggested it because I was thinking the same thing. I just wanted to keep Jackson safe, and watching Nate run around made me feel uneasy.<\/p>\n
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\nA toy train set | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
So, we started inviting him over, sharing snacks and toys, with the boys watching movies or cartoons. It wasn\u2019t much, but it seemed to make Nate smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think his mom plays with him,\u201d Jackson told me when he came to get a glass of juice. \u201cHe said he likes to play with someone.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\nA bowl of chips | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
And do you know what the best part was? Stacy barely seemed to notice or care. Once she realized that her son was safe in my home, she just let herself have more fun. And soon, the hours of her fun began to get longer.<\/p>\n
At the end of it, she would waltz over and knock on the door.<\/p>\n
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\nA woman\u2019s hand on a door | Source: Midjourney<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here for my son,\u201d she would say. \u201cWe\u2019re ready for bath time and bedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as time went by, Nate had gotten so used to the routine that he would simply knock on the door when his mother let him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello,\u201d he\u2019d say, clutching the teddy bear. \u201cI\u2019m here to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
But one day, I took Jackson over to my parents\u2019 house because it was my mother\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope Nate\u2019s going to be okay,\u201d Jackson said in the car as we drove away.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, honey,\u201d I said from the front seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe too, but that\u2019s why his mom is around. She has to keep him safe, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
My son nodded in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n
When we came home that evening, we found the hallway walls covered in marker drawings. It was a mess of stick figures, squiggly lines, and what looked like an attempt at a sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cNate sure had fun,\u201d I said, looking for the apartment key in my bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t he going to get into trouble?\u201d Jackson asked, looking nervously at the drawing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I guess so,\u201d I replied, letting us into the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut his mom should clean it up before anyone else sees it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, I was wrong.<\/p>\n
Weeks went by, and Stacy didn\u2019t lift a finger to clean up the mess. I figured that the building management would eventually catch on and ask maintenance to cover it, or make her pay for the damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould we clean it?\u201d Jackson asked, looking under the sink at our detergents.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, honey,\u201d I said. \u201cI love that you want to, but it\u2019s for Nate and his mom to sort out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But now, imagine my shock when I got slapped with a $500 fine taped to my front door!<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the actual hell is this?\u201d I muttered to myself.<\/p>\n
The letter from the management claimed that my son was responsible for the vandalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cVandalism? But it\u2019s just a child drawing from his imagination!\u201d I exclaimed.<\/p>\n
After all we did to help Stacy and her child, this was how she repaid us? I was furious.<\/p>\n
I knocked on Stacy\u2019s door, hoping to settle things fairly. Look, it was possible that maintenance or management thought it was Jackson. It would have just been a simple misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
But Stacy\u2019s response made my jaw drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Caitlin, you were supposed to look after him while he was in the hallway. Isn\u2019t that what you\u2019ve been doing? You\u2019ve taken it upon yourself. So, it\u2019s your fault that the walls are ruined now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The actual audacity of this woman astounded me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just wanted me to take care of your kid because you were too busy for him,\u201d I said tactlessly, walking away.<\/p>\n
But I wasn\u2019t about to let this slide. I had been nice, but enough was enough.<\/p>\n
So, I came up with a sneaky plan.<\/p>\n
I washed the hallway walls in the middle of the night, making sure that I was quiet.<\/p>\n
And then the next day, when Jackson and I had were home from school, Stacy opened her door. She looked at the clean walls and smirked at me before letting Nate out of the house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s in your backpack?\u201d Jackson asked him, moving aside so that Nate could enter.<\/p>\n
\u201cToys and markers and paper and crayons,\u201d he said, counting them off his fingers.<\/p>\n
After some snacks and games, I casually suggested that Nate go outside and have some fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo be an artist, darling! Go draw on the walls like you did before!\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes beamed. I felt bad that I was setting him up, but at the end of the day, it wasn\u2019t about Nate. It was about teaching his mother a lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, really?\u201d Jackson asked, amused.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I have to show Stacy how to be a mom. Now, you stay inside and do your homework. When we\u2019re done, the three of us can make some pizza and watch a movie. Deal?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDeal!\u201d he said, running off to the dining table to do his homework.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, while I was talking to Jackson, Nate had gone to town on the hallway again, and I made sure to capture it all on video, with clear shots of the markers and the little artist in action.<\/p>\n
When he was done, I put my phone away and called him in for pizza.<\/p>\n
The next day, I casually dropped the video into a conversation with the building manager, feigning shock and disappointment at the ongoing mess.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you believe it, Thomas?\u201d I asked, showing him the footage on my phone. \u201cI thought the first time was bad, but this\u2026 This is extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n
The manager\u2019s face turned crimson as he watched.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unacceptable,\u201d he muttered. \u201cI\u2019ll handle it. And when I\u2019m done, I\u2019ll need to sort out cameras in every hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that afternoon, the management confronted Stacy with the evidence. She couldn\u2019t deny it. The fine was transferred to her, and she received a stern warning about supervising her kid.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t stop there. I wanted to be petty.<\/p>\n
When I was in the laundry room, I spread the word among our neighbors, who were just as tired of Stacy\u2019s antics.<\/p>\n
In the hallway, I overheard a conversation between two neighbors.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you hear about Stacy? She tried to blame her kid\u2019s mess on someone else. Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, right! Some people just have absolutely no shame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearing their disdain was a small but satisfying victory. And Stacy\u2019s reputation was tarnished. Everyone knew that she abandoned her son when she wanted alone time. But since then, I started noticing her keeping a closer eye on her son, who no longer roamed the halls unsupervised.<\/p>\n
One day, as I was heading back with groceries, I ran into Stacy in the hallway. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes and a frazzled expression. Her son clung to her leg, looking equally worn out.<\/p>\n
She mumbled a half-hearted apology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize\u2026 I mean, I shouldn\u2019t have\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I cut her off, uninterested.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust keep an eye on Nate. He\u2019s a wonderful little boy,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
She nodded, smiling slightly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Caitlin\u2019s neighbor, Stacy, takes it for granted that she\u2019ll watch over her child when Stacy is busy, Caitlin allows it to give the boy some stability. But when Caitlin isn\u2019t around and the little boy draws along the hallway walls, Caitlin is left with a $500 fine. Determined to teach Stacy a lesson, Caitlin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11854,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847\/revisions\/11854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}