Witness

Prompt: Write a story about "What the Neighbors Saw"

The Millers: Faithful in their weekly Saturday morning church attendance and  Sunday morning detailing of the family cars.

The Millers were good neighbors, as good one as could ask for Mr. Ajaiyeoba thought.  They kept their place up, and always had a friendly wave whenever they saw him in his driveway or yard. They drove nice cars, which they cared for meticulously. Mr. Miller could always be found on a Sunday morning carefully washing and detailing the family vehicles during the warm months.  They were always well dressed, and carried themselves with the conscious dignity of those who have succeeded and are sure of their way in the world.  Their kids could be a bit loud when they were younger, but that's to be expected.  Mr. Ajaiyeoba's own children could make a ruckus and indeed once a few years ago, Mr. Miller had knocked on his door to ask if he wouldn't mind addressing the children on their screaming as his wife had a migraine.  Mr. Ajaiyeoba had apologized profusely, feeling quite embarrassed to have disturbed his neighbors so, and Mr. Miller had been gracious in accepting his apology.  After that Mr. Ajaiyeoba was careful to keep Tani, Griffith, Lola, & Priscilla inside whenever he saw the Millers shiny silver Mercedes in the driveway.

Saturday morning was always a great time for the children to play outside as the Millers were always away at church.  They attended faithfully, never missing a Saturday morning.  They often seemed stressed leaving the house on Saturday though. In recent years their had been fights with the older daughter about her clothing.  On more than one occasion she'd been ordered back inside to change her too-short skirt or too-revealing top or remove some offending piece of jewelry.  While Mr. Ajaiyeoba had daughters of his own and held fairly conservative standards for them as well, he found the shouting more disturbing than whatever it was the girl was wearing.

While Saturday was Mr. Ajaiyeoba's preferred day to work in the yard, the Millers were quiet on Saturdays, saving their yard work and home projects for Sundays.  More than once Mr. Ajaiyeoba had been awakened early Sunday morning to the roar of Mr. Miller's lawn mower in the summer or his snow blower in the winter.  Mr. Ajaiyeoba had to admit the Millers were an industrious clan, more than making up for their inactivity on Saturdays.  Speaking of  the snow blower, Mr. Ajaiyeoba had to admit to some jealousy over that snow blower.  He had to shovel his driveway by hand every winter, and the snow that got blown over from his neighbors neatly cleared drive didn't make his job any easier.  But he didn't begrudge them the snow blown his way; he knew it wasn't intentional. Just as it wasn't intentional that cars would often block his mailbox when the Millers had guests over for lunch on Saturdays.  Still because of the annoyance it caused him, Mr. Ajaiyeoba was always careful to tell his guests not to block the Miller's or anyone else's mailbox.

The Millers and the Ajaiyeoba's had lived next door to each other for 15 years, yet they'd had little interaction beyond those friendly waves.  Mr. Ajaiyeoba understood that this was the way of things in this country, but it would never have been this way back home.  Once, many years ago, the Ajaiyeoba's had a large social gathering on a Saturday afternoon.  Mrs. Miller was in the backyard with her children, who were then still small.  The children seemed to be looking for leaves, stones, or other natural objects and bringing them to their mother for her inspection.  It just seemed so rude to celebrate right in front of them, so Mrs. Ajaiyeoba had invited them to come over and join the party.
Mrs. Miller seemed startled by the invitation.  She said she would check with her husband who was inside taking a nap.  A few minutes later she'd returned to say that they would try to stop by after sundown if that wasn't too late. Ayoola assured her that would be fine.

True to their word the Millers arrived after dark.  They seemed uncomfortable and Mr. Ajaiyeoba understood.  Here they were, these white Americans amidst a crowd of Nigerians.  He did his best to make them feel at home, offering them barbecue and beer.  The parents swiftly but politely declined the meat and drink,  instead accepting cans of Sprite and plates of jollof rice, bean, and plantain pottage, and akara.  With each item they asked if it contained meat, and smiled with relief at each negative. Nonetheless they picked at the food cautiously and left most of it on the plate.  There was a minor kerfluffle when one of their children was found with chicken on his plate.  The child cried, the parents whisper-yelled, and apologetically explained to us that they were vegetarians. After the whole affair, Mr. Ajaiyeoba came to accept that perhaps inviting the neighbors wasn't the American way.

Lately, after years of more or less undisturbed coexistance, things had felt a little more awkward.  There had been a presidential election this past year and the Millers had let their political loyalties be known, through the prominent placement of their chosen candidate's sign on their front lawn.  Mr. Ajaiyeoba, as a green card holder, could not vote.  Still he felt a bit alienated by that sign.  He felt it made clear without them having to say a word where they stood on a number of issues important to Mr. Ajaiyeoba, and it made him feel anxious.

More recently the Ajaiyeoba's had been finding flyers and tracts in their mailbox.  One flyer with pictures of snarling beasts and a tall statue promised "Amazing Facts" about the end of time.  A leaflet asked "What Happens When You Die?"  Mr. Ajaiyeoba had his own ideas about that, but had a feeling he was soon going to be offered the answer to that question.

Sure enough, one evening near dinnertime, the Millers appeared at his door.

"Hi, Mr. Ajaba," Mr. Miller said.

"Hello," Mr. Ajaiyeoba replied.  "Would you like to come in?"

"Oh no, that's okay. We just wanted to invite you to the meetings at our church," and he offered a flyer similar to the ones that had been appearing in his mailbox. "We've got some great topics and well, we'd love for you to come out and see what we're all about."

Mr. Ajaiyeoba smiled politely and said he'd see. It was a white lie, of course, to spare their feelings.  He liked the Millers well enough, but he didn't need to go to their meetings to see what they were all about.

He'd seen enough already.