firsts

It's 12:55 a.m. And I just called 911 to report domestic violence perpetrated against my neighbor across the hall by her boyfriend.

TV does prepare you for some things, it seems. I heard the argument through the walls -- typical on a weekend night, particularly, for whatever reason, on a Sunday night, and just as I was thinking I would need my earplugs to sleep -- having, you know, work in the morning -- I heard the shouts and hollers turn to horrible thuds and thumps, and then I heard my neighbor scream my name through her door.

So I called the police, flagged them down from my window when they arrived (my house is hard to find), and directed them to the correct door. They resolved everything and sent the beater on his way. Then I talked with my neighbor in the entryway for a few minutes and told her to go talk to the police in the morning while she calmed down.

Then I called my landlord and left him a voicemail.

So now what do I do? I'm sure the boyfriend is pissed at me, and these are not the kind of people you want to be pissed at you when they know where you live. I'd like to be joking, or wry, but I'm not. These are some scary people. I've never had a reasonable sort of fear in my home before. The occasional wild paranoia, yes. Reasonable fear, no.

I don't want my neighbor tossed on her (bruised) ear. I like her. She's not a bad neighbor. But I know the pattern for abusive relationships, and eventually he'll be right back, and it's going to happen again. And each time I'll find myself awake and nervous and sick at some ungodly hour calling the police on some ungodly man, and then worrying about some ungodly retaliation. These things are cyclical.

I love my apartment. I love my home. I could scream at my landlord for this sort of management.

So what are my options? The chances of getting a quiet, solid, untroubling neighbor, with the landlord I have, are slim to none, barring some monolithic act of God. I shouldn't have to move. I have stubbornly refused to consider the option before. It's my right to be here. But it's also my right to be safe. And now that's being called somewhat into question.

But I love my neighborhood. I want to continue to live in it.

And I want to continue living in my apartment. The one I'm paying rent on. The one I'm living in right now.

I don't want to have to deal with crap like this. But now that it's here, how do I deal? Insist on getting rid of the neighbor right now? Give it another incident or two before I really start caterwauling? Wait out the next conveyor belt line of horrifying neighbor selections? Start apartment hunting? Start house hunting?

One thing I will do for sure. After I talk to my parents, I'm talking to my boss. He's offered to write my landlord a letter before. I think it's time to take him up on that offer. My safety is at stake here.