Nosy Neighbor Lady

Who knew that I would someday be the nosy neighbor lady? Maybe some of you did, but I didn't see it coming. It all started when 2 little girls (5 and 7) from our street ran away from home with a suitcase full of clothes and apples. They walked more than a mile and were found over an hour later, in a culvert, naked (they were hot), eating apples. Luckily, because of the emergency system we have in town, all residents got a recorded phone call from the police describing the girls, and calls started flooding in. People had noticed them all along their journey down Route 30 and Route 9. I couldn't believe nobody stopped and asked them where they were going.

Not long after that happened, I was driving down our street and saw two little girls literally sitting in the middle of the road, using sidewalk chalk. I pulled over and said that it wasn't safe to do that and they needed to stay out of the road. As I drove away I looked in my rearview mirror and was shocked to see the little sh*ts running back out into the road. I turned around and drove back, and more sternly said that it was dangerous and they needed to stay out of the road or they'd get run over. I pulled away again, and WTF?...they did it again! So I called 911 and tattled on them. A police car came right over and the next day one of the girls was playing in the road but her mother was sitting next to the driveway watching her. I guess that's an improvement? One of the girls rides Aliya's bus. I told her not to admit that her mother's the NNL.

This weekend I was driving down a busy street near our house and I saw a little girl walking with no shoes. She didn't look any bigger than Aliya. I almost kept going but I turned around and watched. She would veer away from the street every time a car went by, and she continued to walk. I pulled over and she came right up to the car. She said she was looking for her brothers and I said that I was going to turn into a side street and come talk to her. She answered all of my questions and basically she was 8 years old and out looking for her brothers - 12 and 15. She had no clue where they were. I ended up calling her mother and she drove down and picked her up. She didn't seem overly worried about it, but I felt better. I couldn't just drive away without making sure she was safe. Both situations made a real impression on Aliya.