My boyfriend and I used to live in a small apartment complex. For about six months we were more or less happy there; until D. & family moved in next door. They were a young couple with a little girl (about 3) and a baby only a couple of months old. They weren't really bad people, just hopelessly inept and thoughtless. A few days after they moved in we made the mistake of letting D. come in to borrow the phone, and from then on D. was always knocking on our door wanting to borrow something or asking favors.
A short list of things D. requested:
1. To use the phone (at least once a day, sometimes 4 or 5 times)
2. Milk, butter, eggs, various other food products so that D. could finish making breakfast/lunch/dinner.
3. Asking us to take his wife to work -she was a checker at a grocery store a couple of miles away. They didn't have a car, of course. D. never worked or attempted to get a job in all the time we knew him, so he had plenty of time to annoy us.
4. Money. We always turned him down on this, not having much to spare.
5. Asking us to take him to the grocery store/his mom's house/friend's house/various other places.
6. Asking for a cigarette. This was also a favorite request, we got this one at least a couple of times a day.
7. And worst of all, water. That's right, D.'s water got cut off a few weeks after they moved in, so whenever they needed to bathe, brush their teeth, cook, clean, or flush the toliet D. came banging on the door with a bucket in hand. This went on for weeks.
I know what you're thinking, why the hell did you put up with this? Not answering the door didn't work. He'd stand there and knock for 10 minutes, and then he would just wait for us to venture outside. A lot of times we did refuse, but sometimes we just gave him what he wanted to git rid of him, (dumb, I know). We also felt sorry for him and his family.
D. started a grease fire a few months after he moved in while cooking breakfast. He put the fire out but his apartment was filled with smoke, so he rushed over to our apartment and asked if he could leave he baby here for "a few minutes" to get him/her out of the smoke. We agreed, and he layed the baby on our couch. We didn't see him again for at least 45 minutes. My boyfriend and I didn't know what to do, neither of us possessing any experience in caring for babies. The baby didn't cry any, but he/she did spit up gross white stuff all over our couch. We finally had to go knock on HIS door to get him to retrieve the baby. What was he thinking? He didn't really know us. For all he knew we could have been crazed baby kidnappers.
D.'s wife only came over once. She and her little girl knocked on the door and asked to borrow the phone. I let them in and went back to whatever I was doing. A few minutes later I heard shrieks of terror coming from the living room. I went to see what was wrong and saw Mrs. D. running out of the apartment. Her little girl was standing on top of coffee table crying and screaming "Cat!" "Cat!" I picked her up and took her over to D.'s apartment and met D. coming out of the door. D. collected his child and said "It's okay, my wife's just scared of cats." That's right. Mrs. D. ran screaming out of my apartment leaving her child behind because she saw my 6 lb., declawed cat walking towards her.
When our lease came up, we decided not to renew. We were just too sick of D.'s constant requests and moving seemed to be the easiest way to get away from him. The only apartment we could find was about $50 more a month than what we were currently paying, but it seemed worth it just to get away.
