To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
Hey Cadence!
Just wanted to reach out and see how you’re settling in! We all miss you back at Guelph General, but I know you’ll do great up in Thunder Bay and it’s not like we can’t ever visit, I guess!
Things have been pretty quiet since you left. Hope you didn’t take all of the excitement with you haha.
Love
Darlene Kondo
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
Hey Darlene
Thanks for reaching out! I hope you’re doing well! Things are going alright so far. I’m just settling in after the move. I miss you guys back at Guelph too, but the team here is really great and they’ve done a lot to make me feel welcome. It’s really exciting, being able to take this next step in my career and I’m sure one day I’ll find my way back home to Guelph.
Funny you should mention taking all of the excitement with me. I’ve had some interesting drama lately. You’ll probably get a kick out of this.
While the new house is great, the neighbors aren’t. They kind of remind me of the people who lived across from your old house. I’m not sure if they’re druggies or what, but they’re certainly loud. The other night, they were having some sort of party (Seriously? On a Tuesday night?) and it woke Dad up. He was complaining to me about the noise, so I went to go knock on the door to ask if they could turn it down.
I’m going to sound incredibly judgemental here, but this guy’s house already looked trashy. Some of his guests who were smoking outside had left their bottles, cups, and cigarette butts all over his lawn. You could smell the pot from across the street, and one guy seemed so baked out of his mind that he was just standing in the middle of the road without his shirt! I had to push past a couple of his guests to get to the door, and when I tried ringing the doorbell, I didn’t get an answer. Somebody had to go inside and tell the homeowner that someone was there looking for him.
The guy who eventually came to the door was this twenty something-ish, pouty lipped blonde kid I who I could only accurately describe as the biggest douchebag I’ve ever seen.
Douchebag. I don’t think I’ve ever used that word to describe someone before, but I literally can’t think of a more apt description. He had this wispy little soul patch just under his lip and was wearing his baseball cap backwards as if he’d just walked right out of the 1990s.
I asked him if he wouldn’t mind turning the music down a little, since my 76 year old father was trying to rest and this guy literally just laughed and said that my Dad should enjoy the music. I guess to his credit, he asked if my Dad and I wanted to come in for a drink although when I mentioned that my Dad can’t drink on account of the antibiotics he’s on, he just shrugged it off and said it was ‘our loss.’
I tried to ask him to turn the music down again, but by that point he’d basically just wandered off to talk to one of his buddies and I figured that there probably wasn’t much point in trying to get his attention back. Judging by the smell of him, he was so baked out of his gourd that he’d probably already forgotten our conversation.
I ended up calling the police to make a noise complaint, although I don’t think that anything actually came of it. The party still went on until shortly before sunrise. Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot of sleep and Dad was cranky the next morning.
I’m really hoping that this kind of thing isn’t going to be the norm with these people… but considering the fact that they had another party last night, I’m not hopeful. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll figure out some way to deal with them and so far that’s been the only problem I’ve had. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way.
Take care of yourself and tell the team I miss them!
Cadence
To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
WOW.
What an asshole! What’s your diagnosis, doctor? SOB with a BFH? LOL!
Jokes aside, you should keep some sort of record of stuff like this, just in case it does become a regular occurrence! I’d hate to jinx it, but judging by your description of this guy, it kinda sounds like it will be.
Looks like some of the patients miss you! Mrs. Knight was in the other day asking about you. She was upset to hear that you’d moved. Heads up… she may just try to follow you. If anyone would drive all the way up to Thunder Bay just for a consultation, it would be her.
Speaking of your Dad, how is he doing? Any improvements?
-Darlene
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
No improvements I’m afraid, but he’s also not getting worse so there’s that. His doctor is going to keep going with the chemo and antibiotics, so we’ll see where that gets him. For now, I’m just doing everything I can to make sure he’s comfortable and taken care of. He’s beaten cancer before, he can do it again.
On the subject of the neighbor, I’m going to have to concur. The poor man has suffered a faecal encephalopathy and I don’t think there’s any coming back from it. Regrettably, he is a complete and total shithead.
I see him and his girlfriend coming and going from the house every now and then. Usually, they’re screaming at each other. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have an interaction with his girlfriend where they’re not screaming at each other across the driveway. He also has a little makeshift gym set up in his garage, and he always leaves the door open while he’s working out. I’m pretty sure he expects people to watch him, because he’s always either shirtless or wearing this ratty tank top while he’s doing it and he only ever does weights. I genuinely did not believe that people like this existed outside of a few select internet forums but apparently, they live right across the street from me.
I still tried to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and went over to talk to him while he was putting on the gun show. I tried to explain that the noise from his parties was keeping my Dad and I awake. He just told me to ‘mind my own damn business’, then asked me if I liked what I saw while he did reps with a 20 pound dumbbell.
Unbelievable.
I got curious, so I looked this guy up online the other day. His name is Jason de Oliveira. And everything I found on him is just as ridiculous as you’d probably expect. His profile picture is literally him posing with this stupid half skull tattoo on his hand. I guess the idea is that if he puts his hand on his face, the tattoo makes it look like part of his skull is exposed? That seems kind of stupid, does he just go around posing with his hand on his face like that? It’s weird.
There have been a few more parties over the past couple of days, each of them just as loud as the first one. He never cleans up his yard either. It’s always a disaster. I can’t imagine what the inside of that house looks like! It must be a complete pigsty!
I haven’t really bothered trying to talk to him again. Seems like I’d just be wasting my words. So lately I’ve just sat and watched TV with Dad whenever there’s a party. We keep the volume high to try and drown out the noise. Having the TV on actually seems to help him get some sleep, thankfully. So maybe that’s just what we’re going to need to do until I figure out how to deal with our neighbor.
Last nights party seemed to get especially out of hand. I didn’t see exactly what happened, I was sitting on my couch eating takeout for most of the night. But at around 1 AM I saw police sirens outside of my window and had to snoop.
At first, I’d figured that somebody else had filed a noise complaint, but when I went to look I could see Jason cussing out some shirtless guy in the middle of the street. The police looked like they were in the middle of booking the shirtless guy. I think that he and Jason might have gotten into a fight? Hard to say for sure. The party kinda died down after the police left. Maybe this is a good sign? I wouldn’t put money on it, but I can hope right?
Tell Mrs. Knight that I said hello!
-Cadence.
To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
I’ll cross my fingers for you… but yeah, I wouldn’t put money on that being the end of it.
I looked this guy up and yeah… douchebag was the right word to describe him. The first photo I saw of him was a mirror selfie he took with that stupid tattoo of his, captioned with some bogus inspirational quote, but you could see a bit of the inside of his house in the background and yikes.
Yeah… it is a pigsty.
How do people live like that? I genuinely don’t get it! Keep me posted! I’m sort of getting into this little saga of yours! Things are still (relatively) quiet around here, so it gives me something to look forward to, haha!
-Darlene
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
Hey Darlene
There’s definitely something going on with the neighbor, I’m just not sure what, yet. Dad complained to me last night that there was a man standing outside our house. Naturally, that kinda freaked me out a bit so I went to take a look, and guess what?
The same guy I’d seen the police taking away from last nights party was standing in the street again, although I’m pretty sure he was more interested in the neighbors house than our house. I didn’t get close enough to take a good look at him… but I think there’s something very off about that guy… aside from the way he just stands in the street and stares at that house. Maybe it’s his skin. He looks like he has some kind of scarring along his torso or something.
I didn’t try to approach him or anything. I’ve got no idea what a guy like that could be on and I don’t really want to find out either. Odds are that he probably got it from Jason though. I’ve had some suspicions about him for a while now, but aside from the parties and the weed, I haven’t seen anything solid.
I called the police to see if they’d come and pick up the guy standing in the road, and eventually, they came and took him away. Hopefully, that’s the last we’ll be seeing of him. He gave me the creeps.
Starting to regret moving to this neighborhood. Maybe I should start shopping around again?
-Cadence
To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
Okay, that is VERY weird! I’m glad you called the cops and things didn’t get worse! I can totally see where your suspicions about Jason are coming from. He looks skeevy. He probably is a drug dealer or something. Maybe that guy who was outside of his house was looking for a fix or something? Or maybe he just wanted to settle the score from the other night? I don’t know.
Maybe it is time to consider moving? It’d be a shame though! You haven’t even lived in that house for a month and you were so excited when you bought the place! It’s not fair that someone else is ruining it for you!
-Darlene
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
I’m talking to my realtor. I haven’t made any decisions yet, but I just want to know what my options are. That strange guy was back out on the street again. This is the third night in a row he’s been out there!
I saw Jason going out to talk to him, although from what I could see it was a pretty one sided conversation. Jason kept screaming at the guy, getting right in his face and everything but the other guy didn’t seem to say a word. He just stood there, staring at him. Even when Jason pulled a gun, (I’m serious, he pulled an actual gun!) the guy in the road didn’t even flinch.
After a while, the police showed up again. I think Jason’s girlfriend called them. He’d gone back inside by the time they arrived. They took the guy in the road away again but something tells me that he’ll be back again tomorrow night.
I don’t get it? Do they just keep letting him go? I mean, I guess they can’t charge him with anything. He’s not breaking any laws, I guess. But they’ve got to be able to do something to keep him off the street, right?
I heard music from Jason’s house after the cops left. I think he was trying to host another party. Maybe he’s just trying to brush all of this off? A few people showed up, but not many. It died down pretty quickly and when I saw him in his garage this morning, Jason seemed pretty shaken. He was on his phone, pacing around and yelling at someone.
I’m going to be honest, I’m don’t really feel safe in this neighborhood anymore and writing this all out has made me really consider finding another place to live. It won’t be easy, but it will probably be for the best.
To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
Jason pulled a gun? Jesus Christ! I hate to agree with you on this Cadence, but yeah. You and your Dad need to get the hell out of that neighborhood! It sounds to me like things are only going to get worse!
I was curious, so I did a bit of digging and I think I found the guy you saw on the street. His name is apparently Dave Velasquez. He’s friends with Jason on Facebook. He’s certainly got the burn scars on his chest that you mentioned. I’ve attached a picture of the guy. I can look into him more if you want. I’m admittedly a little curious.
-Darlene
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
Darlene, please leave this alone. I’ve spoken to my realtor and I’m talking about putting Dad in a care home for a little while. I’m going to find a hotel to stay in. I can’t stay in this house.
I heard gunshots from the house across the street last night.
I called the police, and locked myself and Dad in the bedroom until they arrived. They told me that everything was clear, but when I asked about Jason across the street they didn’t give me any answers.
I don’t really think they needed to, with all of the police who’d shown up. I saw them already sectioning off the area as a crime scene, but I didn’t see any sign of Jason or his girlfriend. Not until a few hours later when they wheeled out the body bags. I counted about four of them.
I didn’t see the man in the road again (And yes. The man in the picture you sent me is the man I saw in the road) but I don’t want to be involved with this any further and I don’t want you to get involved with it!
My hands are still shaking Darlene. I’ve already packed the things I know that I’ll need, and I’ve called into work to explain the situation. I just want to get as far away from this neighborhood as possible.
God, I miss Guelph…
To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
Wait… so the man in the photo I sent you was the guy you saw on the street? You’re sure of that?
I’m sorry Cadence, I did a bit more digging into Dave Velasquez before I got your email. I’d actually wondered if I’d sent you the wrong guy. Velasquez died sometime last month. An overdose, from the sounds of it. Maybe he had a brother or something? I don’t know.
Just stay safe, okay? Same goes for your Dad. I’m glad you’re okay at least.
Call me if you need anything, I’ll drive right up to help however I can.
-Darlene
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
You’re joking, right? About Dave Velasquez being dead already?
You’d better be joking, Darlene! I’m already freaking out enough already!
To: DarlingKond01989@*****.com
From: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
Oh God… you weren’t joking, were you? I just looked it up and… I think I need to reconsider if I want to stay in Thunder Bay or not.
To: CadenceShaw90@*****.com
From: DarlingDarling1979@*****.com
I’m sorry Cadence, I promise that I’m not trying to scare you! Please, there’s a thousand more logical explanations here. Right now, you’re scared and to be honest, so am I.
Just get someplace safe, alright? If you want to come back to Guelph for a bit, I’ve got a spare room you can stay in.
Call me when you get the chance.
-Darlene