The Neighbors

Flash Fiction

The Neighbors

“What are you doing?” Ruth said sharply, making Alice jump.

“You scared the heck out of me!”

“Sorry. But I was expecting you to be working on the Anderson case. Remember?”

“Yes, I needed to finish what I was already doing first. I’m almost done.”

“You can do that later; they need this asap!”

“Asap? Why?”

“You’ll see as soon as you start it. The Andersons are just being snotty because they don’t like the new neighbor in their neighborhood.”

“Yes… and no…” Alice said, “They do have good reason. They say the new neighbor put up a new fence, and then just to make it worse, painted it purple…”

“It’s not important.”

“Would you want an ugly purple fence at the side of your yard?”

“I like the color purple. They could plant fluffy bushes and hide it from their view... Anyway, this project is serious.

“Fine, I can start it. Why is this one so important?”

“Well, The Andersons are trying to sue their new neighbor over a conflict with their water supply.”

“A private water supply?”

“No, town water. The Andersons have massive gardens and they water them daily. The new neighbor is on the far side of the supply and during long spells with no rain they use so much water the neighbor ends up with drizzle for days. So, she’s suing the Andersons, and the town water supply.”

“You seem to know a lot about this, why aren’t you the one doing this?”

“I can’t… I’m the neighbor…”