What Would Jesus Do?

You know how when you hear about some horrible domestic incident on the news and there are always friends, neighbours, teachers who report after the fact that they saw the warning signs and yet did nothing? I've always hoped that I would be one of the people who WOULD do something. Say, if I heard screaming coming from a house or something that I would call 911 rather than just keep walking and assume it's none of my business. 

Sometimes though it's not so simple. 

I have blogged about our neighbours before. We have the cranky old people beside us: some less cranky old people across from us: and the family next door consisting of a mousy wife, two young daughters and the weird -overly-chatty husband who can have the same conversation with me once a week and never seem to remember. Despite the rampant neighbourhood gossip about this man being a raging drunk and having fights with all the neighbours, we've actually never once seen anything totally out of the ordinary. In fact, it sounded like in the years before we arrived our little street was a regular Knots Landing (I'd say Melrose Place, but that would imply that my neighbours had either looks or money, and alas, neither is the case). Apparently there was lots of fighting and drama all over the place. Now its just sort of dull. I think the people who we bought the house from were a huge part of the drama and when they moved things seemed to have settled down.

Periodically though, this seemingly nice but odd family next door have crazy arguments. I once heard the father and his preteen daughter having a screaming fight over Elton John. (The daughter thought, predictably, that Sir Elton was lame). What struck me about the argument was that there was no air of "jest" about it. There was fury on both sides and it seemed so silly. Then about a year ago, one of Eric's clients came to our front door reporting that our neighbours were, as she put it,"having a domestic." Anyway, I just sort of decided that they are a hot tempered family because this will happen and the next day it all seems fine and they are off camping for the weekend or asking us to sign their passports so they can go to Disney World. 

Then a few weeks ago, I was woken up from a dead sleep at about 1:30 by what sounded like a group of teenagers on the street. It was a Tuesday and Eric was at a band practice and I hadn't heard him come home yet, which was odd because 1:30 would be late for him on just a practice night. The voices were not going away and as I sat up in bed I realized that a fight was going on outside.  I also realized that Eric WAS home and with him was their new lead singer, Erin. Erin was trying to leave but, as it turns out our neighbours were having a crazy huge fight in their driveway and she was sort of afraid to go outside. Eventually, as it became clear that the fight was not going to end, she left and as the door opened I could hear the yelling as if it was on our doorstep. The wife was screaming something about how "he always does this when she has to get up in the morning." Anyway, I guess they were NOT expecting to see anyone leaving our house because as soon as they saw Erin they shut up and I'm hoping were sufficiently embarrassed and went back inside. Again, the next day, all is well. 

Then last night, something really bizarre happened. It was about 9 pm, and coincidentally Erin is just arriving at our house again. We'd had a snowstorm and the roads were bad so Erin's husband had called to make sure she had arrived, as she doesn't have a cell phone. So, when Eric saw her car pull up he went outside to give her his phone. And the neighbours are at it again. This time, while Eric was outside, the wife came running out of the house screaming: "Help Me! Help Me!" but then ran back inside and then about a minute later, came out again screaming "Help Me! Help Me!", then the daughter (who's about 14)came outside and seemed really embarrassed and got the mother back in the house and I think that was the end of it. 

I was thinking about calling 911, but didn't. I think if Eric hadn't seen the daughter come to the door, perfectly fine, I might have. Because really if I ran out the house screaming for help, I'd like to think that someone would actually HELP.  But something about the situation seemed more "crazy" than "emergency".  .

Still...all day, I've felt guilty.  What if there is something really bad going on? What if one morning I wake up not to an argument, but an ambulance? Last night, it felt like calling 911 would be a big deal. Eric seemed to think the wife was drunk. But still, something obviously isn't right over across that fence. I'm sort of worried that they have crossed a line from harmless and, dare I say, even a bit funny, to something that I need to start worrying about.

Anyway, I think next time (and something tells me there WILL be a next time) I will call the police. When it comes right down to it , there are worse things than embarrassment.