Thank God For Nosy Neighbors!

This story is reconstructed partly from my own memory and partly from my grandmother’s.

When I was around four, I was playing in our country house’s yard, and my grandmother was in our outdoor kitchen. Then, suddenly, I had the idea that I wanted to go to the shop for sausages.

Me: “Grandma, I’ll go and buy sausages.”

Grandma responded, thinking I was, you know, playing:

Grandma: “Yes, sure.”

I thought I was good to go, so I just went outside our place and headed down the road with a pink plastic Frisbee disc I was going to use as money. (Don’t ask.)

Now, to put it into perspective: it was 2001, and our country house was located in a little-developed district. That meant there was no electricity almost anywhere, only a couple of telephones within the nearest ten miles, terrible roads, very few neighbors, and lots of forest.

I passed the house of one of the neighbors and — THANK GOD — she was outside.

Neighbor: “Hi! Are you alone?”

Thinking I TOTALLY had Grandma’s permission, I replied:

Me: “Yes, I’m going to the shop to buy sausages.”

Neighbor: “Er, okay…”

As I later found out, she hurried to our house and told my grandparents where I was, and Grandpa was able to catch up with me only a hundred meters further down the road.

Now, that neighbor really, really saved my life that day, which I came to realize after I grew up. Because if she hadn’t seen me, I would have gone on and on and likely gotten lost in the fields and groves that started after the road’s end. Moreover, even had my Grandma realized quickly that I was THAT serious about going to the shop, she would have gone the wrong way to look for me because I didn’t turn right toward where the shops were, which I knew; I turned left! (Don’t ask.)

Obviously, I didn’t even have the time to get scared, so I mostly realized how dreadful the situation was long after it happened. Poor Grandma was absolutely terrified and still recounts it as one of the most nightmarish moments of her life.