Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Neighbor Stops a Flood

The first year in our house was a difficult one to say the least. We had fallen in love at first sight at a house that was above a price we could comfortably pay for. I was working double shifts and my wife was putting in extra time as well as we tried to maintain a life style that at the time we couldn't afford. We were out of the house before six in the morning and never home before seven at night.

On a cold winter night, one of our water pipes froze and split a hose bib out back. Although this is common in the north, we live in sunny southern California and something I'd never seen. When we left for work, it was still frozen and unnoticed by us. However when the sun came up and the pipe defrosted, water was gushing out of the pipe. My neighbor, who we had barely even met, heard the water running and curious peeked over the back fence to see water shooting out of the hose bib.

Without a moments hesitation he turned our water off, then went to the hardware store to get a new hose bib. He then installed it for me and then swept the standing water out of the yard. To Nate (I couldn't even remember his name at the time) this was just something neighbors did. To me it was a lifesaver, if I'd come home after dark to water running all day long there is no telling what kind of mess I'd have had.

I can't honestly say that I would have done the same for him before I knew him. At the very most, I might have shut his water off but at the time, I was more of a 'don't intrude' type of neighbor. Yet as we got to know the people next door, they became not only our neighbors but our lifelong friends. That family taught us what people all over the country know, that neighbors helping neighbors is what you do.

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