The Man Next Door

The house next door had been up for rent for quite some time and I was beginning to think that no-one would ever move in there. Then one day I heard footsteps and a creaking noise coming from the front door. I glanced through my window and briefly saw the figure of a middle aged man dressed in a grey suit. He entered the house and shortly afterwards a van appeared and started to unload small crates, suitcases and other bits and pieces. I knew that the house was fully furnished so there wasn’t any big items on the van except for one larger crate.

As the days went by I occasionally heard a few banging noises and the usual sounds you hear from someone moving into a new house and I decided to wait for him to introduce himself to me rather than vice versa. However, one day I was sitting out in the back garden and I heard the man talking to someone who must have been a woman because I heard him call her Angela and remark on what a lovely day it was. I presumed this must be his wife as he then asked her what she would like for tea and what she would like to do in the evening. He seemed to chat away endlessly to her not giving her a chance to say much back to him although I did think I heard a few quiet mumblings in between his banter. I tried to discreetly peer through the fence that separated our gardens and managed to catch sight of a pair of crossed legs with a floral skirt draped over them but I couldn’t see anything else. A few more days went by and I didn’t really hear that much from my new neighbours except when the man came home from his work and I could hear him call, “I’m home Angela”. I never saw Angela coming and going from the house so I just presumed that she was a housewife. 

Anyway, one particular weekend I was tending to some plants in the back garden again and I heard the French doors open from next door. I could hear the man speaking quietly and then it became louder. He seemed very agitated and started saying things like, “I am getting so bored with you Angela these days. You are looking very unattractive and the spark as completely gone from your face. I really think its time for a fresh start for both of us. Angela, he continued, don’t argue with me. My needs are greater than yours and I really think its time I traded you in for a younger model, so to speak, you are simply not exciting to me anymore.” I stood there and thought, poor Angela, what a creep to say such things to her, she must be feeling awful. She was obviously a very timid sort of woman as she didn’t attempt to raise her voice, all I could hear was some very quiet mumblings. The man spoke again and this time he was even more angry. “Angela, you are really annoying me now. Take that silly look off your face or I will be forced to punch it in and dismember every damn limb on your ugly body. Get inside the house now, you stupid woman where I can deal with you once and for all.” I shuddered at those last few words as I heard a shuffling noise and the French doors slammed shut. I didn’t hear a sound from them after that and went too bed feeling very uneasy about the whole situation.

The following day I ventured out into the back garden again and heard a noise from next door. I peered through the same crack in the fence and managed to see the man putting bags into his garbage bin. The lid of the bin wasn’t closed properly and I stepped back and gasped as I could clearly see a foot peeping out from one of the bags. Oh my God, I thought, what has he done? Has he dismembered his wife like he threatened the day before? I was beside myself and immediately thought that I must call the police. I ran into the house and dialled the emergency number and tried to explain the best way I could what I had witnessed.

The police arrived at my neighbors house and after a while I could hear them talking and laughing in the man’s back garden. I was very puzzled and hastened to place my step ladders against the fence and look to see what was happening. A policeman turned towards me. He was holding a stiff very artificial looking leg in his hand. He waved it at me with a huge grin on his face and I glared back in total embarrassment. “Panic over love, he shouted across at me, think you got the wrong end of the stick or should I say foot”. Very funny I thought and with that I very quickly retreated.

Apparently, my new neighbour had told the police that he had a fetish for mannequins. He wasn’t interested in dating real women. He preferred to create his ideal woman out of manmade materials. A woman he could just sit and admire and dress up in what he wanted and who wouldn’t talk back to him.  He was bored with Angela and wanted a younger and more sexy looking model. It just goes to show how you can very easily get things wrong and end up being the one with egg on your face. Although I found the whole thing quite embarrassing I was also left feeling quite amused by it all. I wasn’t sure I would be able to face my neighbour after the incident and dreaded to think what the new love of his life looked like. Now I knew what the large crate was when he first moved in because another one was delivered a few days later. 

However, that wasn’t the end of it. Over the next few days there were some very strange happenings from the man next door. My curiosity got the better of me so I often went to peer through my garden fence to see what he was up to. In the evenings I could just see that there were many candles lit beyond his French doors.

Anyway I decided I would be brave enough to go and see this man and apologise for my misunderstanding so one evening I plucked up the courage to ring his doorbell.  He came to the door and stood there staring at me with his dark stern eyes. I introduced myself and told him I felt I should drop by to apologize to him. He told me his name was David and invited me into the house. He ushered me into the dining area and offered me a chair and a cup of tea. While he was in the kitchen I took the opportunity to look around the room. There were candles everywhere and all sorts of different artefacts spread about including a couple of weird looking dolls which looked like they were once owned by a witch doctor. I noticed a lot of crystals and minerals dotted here and there and there was a very weird smell to the atmosphere. I also noticed on the sideboard a book that was opened on a page which was showing what appeared to be a poem. I managed to read the first verse which was as follows:

Sacred water run from me
And draw her ever near
As rivers always flow to sea
Make her path so clear.

I decided not to read the rest and instead ventured through the double doors into the living area and in the centre of the room was the large crate I’d seen delivered a few days ago.  I just had to have a look inside and there she was, a long blond haired mannequin wearing a skimpy leather outfit. I glared at her facial features which were so perfectly defined.

I heard a noise so I rushed back to my seat in the dining room just in time for Davids reappearance. He set the tea tray on the table in front of me and sat down on a nearby sofa. He started mumbling about how he wasn’t able to relate to other people very well because of the bad experiences he had had with people in the past. I took a sip of my tea which was so bitter that I decided not to drink anymore and quickly told him I had an appointment to go to and would have to leave. He looked somewhat bewildered at my hasty departure but I really didn’t want to be there any longer. Back in my own house I sat and thought for a while about my visit next door and shuddered. He was certainly a very peculiar type of person and I really felt very uncomfortable in his presence.

A few days went by during which I continued to hear strange noises from next door. Then one weekend I was outside tending to my plants and I heard voices over the garden fence. I again peered through my usual little peep hole and was aghast at what I saw. I saw David embracing a woman. The woman was the same one I had seen in the crate. Only she was real. She was definitely real. They were laughing and dancing together around the patio. Then I heard David say, “I am so happy I was able to bring you to life Susan, you are so much more beautiful than Angela”.  “Oh David”, she replied, “you are such a wonderful Wizard and you have made me so happy”. With that they both continued to laugh and dance together.

I was completely stunned and just stood there trying to get my head around it all. I thought about the things I had seen in his living room, the weird ornaments, the crystals, the book of poems and the strange odours. “Ah yes”, I mumbled to myself, “that could have been a book of spells”. I then thought about Angela. Could it be that he made her come alive then when he got bored with her he changed her back into a mannequin and just threw her in the bin. Now he has done the same with Susan until of course he gets bored with her too. I never really believed in Witches or Wizards before now and it really shook me up. I knew I couldn’t tell anybody about what I had learned because they would think I was crazy. If I called the police David would simply change Susan back to her former state and I would be a laughing stock again.

That night I had a bad dream about David getting annoyed with me and changing me into a mannequin and that really got me thinking so the following day I made my mind up that I was going to move away.  I knew I would be living in fear if I continued to live next door to this man. Goodness knows what he would be capable of doing. I would never have chosen a Wizard for a next door neighbour that’s for sure.

The End