I walked to the mailbox the other day and met a new neighbor. He moved in six years ago. I then had to ask myself how that\u2019s possible. The answer is pretty weird. The reason is that I shun all my neighbors, because I fear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I was fourteen, a lunatic neighbor rode up the hill on a black horse. Apparently, some hunter had mistaken his horse for a deer and shot at it. They missed, but he snapped. He rode up to our house. My three younger brothers were inside and I went out to see what this guy wanted. He sat on his black horse, all dressed in black with a black Eastwood hat. He had a stick of dynamite in his belt and a lit cigar in his mouth. I\u2019m not making this shit up. He started yelling at me about shooting at his horse. Then he pulled a revolver from his holster, aimed it at me, and shot. The bullet hit the ground about three feet away and sprayed dirt and rocks. Some hit my arm and cut it, causing it to bleed. I tried to move, but I couldn\u2019t. My entire body locked up and my knees shook. All I could do was stand there. He then told me he was going to blow up our house. And I believed him. Then he rode off down the road and tried to threaten several other neighbors. My parents weren\u2019t home at the time and there were no cell phones then. When they got home, my dad called the cops. They did nothing about this guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My dad told us next time to get the shotgun and duck down below the window, then pop up and shoot the person in the chest. I guess fifty-nine-year-old me has been expecting \u201cnext-time\u201d to come some day. Thankfully, it never has. And I wonder about myself. Would I freeze on the spot like fourteen-year-old me? Would I be able to take someone\u2019s life for threatening my family? Should I? And I hate that we live in a world where that choice has to be made. I feel for the people that live through things like that. I sympathize with people who were minding their own business, living their lives, and a war came along and ran through their yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So yeah, I keep to myself up here. I don\u2019t talk much with neighbors. I don\u2019t go out and meet the new ones. I don\u2019t get in their business and I mind my own. And I pretty much like it that way. It doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m a horrible person, or that I hate them. I just like it quiet and private.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I walked to the mailbox the other day and met a new neighbor. He moved in six years ago. I then had to ask myself how that\u2019s possible. The answer is pretty weird. The reason is that I shun all my neighbors, because I fear them. When I was fourteen, a lunatic neighbor rode up the hill on a black horse. Apparently, some hunter had mistaken his horse for a deer and shot at it. They missed, but he snapped. He rode up to our house. My three younger brothers were inside and I went out to see what this guy wanted. He sat on his black horse, all dressed in black with a black Eastwood hat. He had a stick of dynamite in his belt and a lit cigar in his mouth. I\u2019m not making this shit up. He started yelling at me about shooting at his horse. Then he pulled a revolver from his holster, aimed it at me, and shot. The bullet hit the ground about three feet away and sprayed dirt and rocks. Some hit my arm and cut it, causing it to bleed. I tried to move, but I couldn\u2019t. My entire body locked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32u0F-Ot","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1139,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1139","url_meta":{"origin":3129,"position":0},"title":"Invincible","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"October 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When you're young nothing can touch you.\u00a0 If you think you can do something, you don't doubt that you can. I stood on the edge of the roof and looked down.\u00a0 I knew that I could fall and maybe even die.\u00a0 But I wasn't scared.\u00a0 No I wasn't even shaky.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1086,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1086","url_meta":{"origin":3129,"position":1},"title":"The Cage","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"February 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There's an eagle that lives at Bonnie Falls. As I write this, I am not particularly inspired. No great urgency of greatness rests upon me. I desire to do more, though. I want more out of my life than just existence and survival. For many years I have driven two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1068,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1068","url_meta":{"origin":3129,"position":2},"title":"The Pictures of You","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"February 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was fourteen we made a self portrait in art class. The teacher gave us a little mirror, told us to look at our face, and draw what we saw. I sat down and went to work. 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It loved the hill where it had grown up, extended its roots deep into the ground, and tasted the waters of the earth. In the spring, it dropped its cones; the seeds scattered around and the little ones were born. They sprouted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":3129,"position":4},"title":"Flight to Mars-1951: SciFi Movie Review","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"April 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"[rating:3\/5] \u00a0 I watched this Scifi classic last night. \u00a0I love old movies like this. \u00a0Five people are selected to go to Mars. \u00a0The pilot of the ship is an engineer who is in love with a woman scientist. \u00a0Two other male scientists and a journalist go along. \u00a0As soon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Flight_to_mars.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3047,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=3047","url_meta":{"origin":3129,"position":5},"title":"The Villain I Made","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"March 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I've not been good at villain creation. I've known many of them in my life, but I haven't ever made one. I guess my storytelling child author just assumed people are good or bad. But in reality people are all different shades, moving in and out of these shadows, transforming,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3130,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3129\/revisions\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}