You don't realize when your neighbors are gone. Not in a city like this. You've never met them, but one day their car is not parallel parked across the street and you missed the end of the month move-out. Were they really there for a year or had they made different arrangements with the landlord? We all pray to a landlord here.
The tall girl I took for an actress because she lived next door to the playwright is gone now. I don't really know how gone she is, or where. I never knew her. I know I saw her sitting out on the patio one night with said playwright until they went in and for once she did not shut the blinds and I saw them in an awkward one night embrace. He has to be her senior by 10 years I would say.
She always was up and out before me, leaving for work in her pickup truck and a semi-pants-suit, which belied my illusion of her being an actress, and an actress only.
I have been here for over 3 years now. Longer than I have lived anywhere other than my parents house. I don't want to leave, but what I fear more is that if I do, the neighborhood will not miss me.
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