It\u2019s been fun having other people live next door, but Penelope is the worst. It seemed like a small thing for her to tell me to take down my soft solar lights, but what happened next made her beg at my door.<\/p>\n
Before this, I never really thought about karma. I used to think that luck was never on my side, but lately that has changed.<\/p>\n
Hannah, I\u2019m a 40-year-old single mom who works as a marketing assistant in a busy city office and raises my beautiful daughter Emma.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll talk about Emma. Ten years old, she\u2019s my pride and joy. She cares about people and sees the world in ways that most adults forget. She\u2019s the kind of kid who would bake cookies for our elderly neighbor Mrs. Wilson or leave thank-you notes for the mail driver just because she \u201cseemed a bit down today.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s the best kid I could have asked for, and I\u2019m so grateful to have her in my life, even with all the ups and downs.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t always been easy, to be honest. Since I broke up with Emma\u2019s dad nine years ago, I\u2019ve been on my own.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been hard at times to balance work and raising Emma, as well as worrying about money and the emotional hurdles of being a single parent.<\/p>\n
Emma has kept me going, though. She makes me strong, and I make her strong. But that\u2019s a story for another time.<\/p>\n
Today I\u2019d like to talk about something that happened not long ago and still amazes me. We\u2019ve loved living in this cute little neighborhood for five years.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not fancy, but it\u2019s warm and comfortable. People in our neighborhood know each other, wave as they drive by, and talk about gardening plans on the weekends.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a great summer here. Kids ride bikes down the street, there\u2019s always a yard sale going on, and the air smells like cooked food. I and Emma both love it.<\/p>\n
Emma and I sit in our yard every night with our solar lights on, which softly light up our little flower beds. We had a good time making those lights last spring. Emma chose them because she thought our yard needed some \u201cmagic sparkle.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve talked about her school day, her dreams of becoming a vet (which change every other week), and anything else on her mind in our garden ever since.<\/p>\n
When Penelope moved in next door a few months ago, things changed. You could say Penelope is\u2026 well, she\u2019s different.<\/p>\n
Even on the weekends, she always wears a sharp suit and high heels like she\u2019s running a big business. She\u2019s 33 years old.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not impressed by the fact that she works in finance and drives a brand-new car. Her yard is lovely, with roses and bushes that have been pulled back. Those flowers must have cost her a lot of money.<\/p>\n
But how she acted? Penelope isn\u2019t very nice.<\/p>\n
She never smiles and doesn\u2019t talk to anyone over the fence, even if you paid her. And don\u2019t even bring up the time she was mad that kids were playing on her grass.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t think much of her at first. That was fine with me\u2014I thought she just liked her own room.<\/p>\n
Then she decided that my little sun lights were a bother.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the story really begins.<\/p>\n
She started coming to my house every night after a week of living there to complain about the solar lights in my yard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey shine into my bedroom and are too bright.\u201d She would tell him, \u201cYou need to take them down.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought Penelope\u2019s complaint would end after one time, but it didn\u2019t. Other people in the neighborhood even tried to agree with her about my yard lights.<\/p>\n
She would moan, \u201cThose lights keep me up all night.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seemed silly to me. There wasn\u2019t much light there! They had a soft glow that went away at midnight.<\/p>\n
When she came back one night, I tried to explain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a solar light, Penelope.\u201d They are small and not very bright. \u201cPlus, they turn off around midnight,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
She wouldn\u2019t listen, though. \u201cI don\u2019t care.\u201d They need to leave.<\/p>\n
The worst part was how Emma felt about it. We put up those lights together, and she loved them. I could see Emma\u2019s face fall every time Penelope came over to complain.<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t understand why our neighbor was so mad, and I didn\u2019t either.<\/p>\n
I had no plans to turn off the lights. Why should I?<\/p>\n
Then Penelope came over one day and looked mad.<\/p>\n
\u201cHannah\u2026 She yelled, \u201cThese lights are a problem! If you don\u2019t take them down, I\u2019ll call the police!\u201d<\/p>\n
It made me feel bad and angry. I didn\u2019t want a big fight, though, because I knew Emma would be upset.<\/p>\n
I took a deep breath, and then I chose to give up. I hoped that this would make things better.<\/p>\n
Emma came outside that night while I was digging the lights out of the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, why are you taking them down?\u201d Her green eyes went from one light to another as she asked.<\/p>\n
I got down on my knees next to her and gave her a tight hug.<\/p>\n
I told my wife, \u201cHoney, Penelope doesn\u2019t like the lights, so we\u2019re taking them down for now.\u201d \u201cBut I promise we\u2019ll put up even better ones soon, okay?\u201d \u201cMaybe some that look like little stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could tell Emma was sad even though she said yes.<\/p>\n
We thought that was the end of it that night when we went to bed, but things were about to change quickly.<\/p>\n
It woke me up the next morning with a loud bang on the front door. Once I got downstairs, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder who was making such a loud noise so early in the morning.<\/p>\n
I was shocked to see Penelope when I looked through the peephole. But this wasn\u2019t the Penelope I knew. She wasn\u2019t neat and put together. It looked like she was in her clothes because her hair was all over the place and her face was tired.<\/p>\n
I opened the door and tried not to look too shocked.<\/p>\n
She yelled, \u201cWhat did you do?! \u201cbefore I could ask what was wrong. Now is the time to put those solar lights back up, because my yard is a mess!\u201d<\/p>\n
I blinked, totally lost. Was that a joke?<\/p>\n
She told me yesterday that she would call the police if I didn\u2019t turn off the lights, and now she wanted them back. What was going on?<\/p>\n
\u201cPenelope, what do you mean?\u201d \u201cBecause you told me to, I took them down,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n
She cried out, \u201cThat was a mistake!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she told him that raccoons from the nearby woods got into her yard last night because the lights weren\u2019t on. It was fun for them to tear up her pretty flowers and plants and chew on everything.<\/p>\n
Penelope shook her head and said, \u201cI\u2026 I couldn\u2019t do anything.\u201d \u201cI was scared to go outside and scare them away.\u201d I did nothing but watch as they ruined my lovely yard.<\/p>\n
I paid attention and kept my face straight as she talked. I smiled slightly and told her, \u201cI told you those lights were useful.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were tears in Penelope\u2019s eyes, and she almost broke down. It was now that she begged.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease turn the lights back on.\u201d Could you also help me clean up my yard?\u201d<\/p>\n
She acted like this was my fault, even though she was scared. She looked at me like I was going to fix her mess right away.<\/p>\n
But I was done. \u201cSorry, Penelope, but that\u2019s not my problem,\u201d I told her. The lights didn\u2019t bother you. You should get someone to fix up your yard.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you figure it out soon, Penelope,\u201d I told her with a smile. \u201cGood day.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, I shut the door and left her standing there.<\/p>\n
She worked on her yard for hours and spent a lot of money over the next few weeks. Emma and I, on the other hand, put up our solar lights again and added a few more just to be safe.<\/p>\n
I learned from this that fate really does make things fair. Penelope asked for those lights to be turned off, and she got them, but not without some trouble!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been fun having other people live next door, but Penelope is the worst. It seemed like a small thing for her to tell me to take down my soft solar lights, but what happened next made her beg at my door. Before this, I never really thought about karma. I used to think that […]<\/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-31968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31968","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=31968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31969,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31968\/revisions\/31969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}