It’s just some trash and a bit of paint.” Mike chimed in, “Kids will be kids, right?” The look on their faces was priceless. They knew they’d been caught, and there was nothing they could do about it.
“This is unacceptable!” Tom blustered. “We’ll report you to the homeowners’ association!” I smiled sweetly. “Go ahead. I’m sure they’d love to see the footage of you vandalizing our property too.”
Jane’s face crumpled. “Why would you do this?” “Why would we do this?” Mike repeated incredulously. “Are you serious? You trashed our house, threw parties without our permission, and let your guests destroy our property!” “And then you lied about it,” I added. “You even tried to blame Ethan and Olivia.” Tom had the decency to look ashamed.
“We… we didn’t think you’d find out.” “Well, we did,” I said firmly. “And now you know how it feels.” Word spread quickly through the neighborhood.
When Jane tried to complain to other neighbors, we simply showed them the footage of what the Johnsons had done to our property. “I can’t believe they would do that,”
our neighbor Mrs. Peterson said, shaking her head after watching the video. “And they seemed like such nice people.” Another neighbor, Mr. Garcia, was equally disgusted. “That’s just not right. You can’t treat people’s property like that.”
Within days, the neighborhood had turned against them. They had no choice but to clean up their mess and change their ways. As I watched them picking up trash from their lawn, I couldn’t help but think about that warning note.
Sometimes, you need to stand up for yourself and teach people a lesson in respect. The Johnsons learned the hard way that treating others badly can come back to bite you. “You know,” Mike said, putting his arm around me,
“I’m glad we found that note, even if it was a little late.” I nodded, leaning into him. “Me too. And next time, we’ll listen to warnings like that a lot sooner.”
We stood there, watching the Johnsons work, feeling satisfied that justice had been served. It wasn’t the welcome to the neighborhood we’d expected, but it sure made for one hell of a story.
As we turned to go back inside, I saw Ethan and Olivia walking down the street. They waved, and we waved back. “You know,” I said to Mike, “I think we might have found some real friends in this neighborhood after all.”
