The roiling smoke's tendrils were caressing the top of my car. I'd come outside of the house at night because I heard a strange knocking noise - I thought it was just a car with doof-doof music.
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How wrong I was!
My air conditioner was burning.
A stench of burning plastic and electronics filled the air. Smelling and then spotting the smoke, my neighbour (conveniently an electrician) jumped quickly at the fence suspecting my car was on fire and then brought tools and the necessary fire extinguisher as the flames were exposed and then defeated.
It cost him, potentially burnt fingertips from an overheated plastic casing, the use of the extinguisher, and just general inconvenience.
At 8pm nobody wants to be standing in a smoky carport with a pyjama-d neighbour dealing with toxic smoke.
The saying 'good fences make good neighbours' is ironic. Because they don't - they allow us to ignore one another. In reality good neighbours look over the fence to look out for you. Had I not been there, I'm certain he would have jumped the fence and helped anyway.
Be like my neighbour.
Don't let a boundary stop you being neighbourly.
St Paul's Anglican Church meets on Sundays at 9am with kids church. All welcome.
