I read it twice.
Then I wrote back.
I did talk to you. Twice.
The first time, you promised to stop.
The second time, you told me I was lucky it was only tea bags and closed the door.
I’m not sure what additional conversation you expected.
I have lived here for eleven years.
I signed for your packages all last winter.
I try to be a good neighbor.
That works both ways.
The tea bags have stopped.
That was all I wanted.
I put the note in his mailbox.
He never replied.
And the tea bags never returned.
That could have been the end of the story.
But apartment buildings are not single transactions.
They are communities.
And people are usually more complicated than the worst thing they have done.
Six weeks later, Mrs. Okafor from 2C came to visit me.
She mentioned Daniel.
“He helped me carry groceries last week,” she said. “Three trips upstairs.”
