Condemned...

Have you ever lead to the downfall of another person before? This is my first. I mean, sure ultimately he brought about his own downfall, but my hands are not clean.

This is the house that was three doors down from mine. It belonged to Enrico. When we first moved here, the neighbors were talking with him about his property. You see, Enrico was a beekeeper. Now, that is just fine and dandy. Beekeeping is perfectly legal in my city (Heck! we used to awoken every morning to the sound of a rooster crowing from the house behind us. We thought it was funny and quaint at first, but the reality is not like the movies or cartoons. They don't just crow once or twice, they keep going and going.) sorry, back to the bees. So, legally you can have 4 bee hives on a city lot. Enrico had 16. He didn't provide them with a water source so these hives depended on neighbors garden pools for water. They all had to be drained because the bees got so thick.

The city finally got around to citing him and he got rid of most of the hives and cleaned up the back porch where he produced the honey. Then, we started noticing new, strange people showing up at his house to buy "honey." They would pull up out front and honk their horns for someone to come out to the car and then minutes later drive away. Then there were the desperate looking ladies who began to take up residence there. You know, the last chance hookers hanging off the balcony. The new strange people would pull up and go inside and 15 minutes later be on their way.

I began talking with some of these ladies, to be sure they themselves were safe (Enrico's wife left him after being beaten to a bloody pulp one too many times.) Sister Jeanne would go over there and pray with him and he would cry to her and promise to change his life blah blah blah and we really hoped that he would. Suddenly 16 beehives didn't seem so bad. But in the end, we knew we couldn't help him and we had to protect our families. So, we attacked. We started a phone tree and every time a car pulled up front and honked its horn we flooded 911 with calls and license plate numbers. His life began to crumble quickly at that point. He lost his house in foreclosure, but he didn't have to move out, yet. (Foreclosure can take a surprisingly long time.), his water was then turned off, and once turned off for 3 days your house becomes unlivable and is condemned. The day they came to board up the house his van was booted and towed away by the city.

It took my breath away watching it all unfold. Watching right before my very eyes as a man became homeless. Knowing that he had done it to himself and yet feeling horribly uneasy about my hand in it. But, dammit I will fight you to the death if you endanger my children.