I thought the strangest thing about my new neighbors was how little I ever saw of them. Then one ordinary morning, I discovered something on my property that made me realize there was far more happening next door than I could have imagined.
My new neighbors had only lived next door for a week when I found their twin toddlers hiding inside my empty trash can.
I didn’t even know they had daughters.
The house next door had been empty for almost three months before the sale finally went through.
I knew the new owners would be moving in sometime that month, but they never came over to introduce themselves or even say hello.
Normally, I would have knocked on their door with a pie or a loaf of banana bread.
That was the kind of neighborhood we had.
People waved from their porches, collected packages for one another, and knew which dog belonged to which house.
But something about the couple next door made me hesitate.
I had only seen a man and woman standing in the driveway once, so I assumed they were just a couple.
The man was tall and broad-shouldered, with a habit of scanning the street as if he expected someone to be watching him.
The woman, who looked a little younger than I was, kept her arms folded tightly across her chest.
Neither of them looked my way.
After that, I mostly noticed signs that someone was living there without actually seeing anyone.
The curtains closed before sunset.
A car left early in the morning and returned after dark.
The back porch light glowed at odd hours.
I had no idea children lived there.
That was why I was so confused the following Tuesday when I went outside to bring my empty trash can back from the curb and realized it felt unusually heavy.
Trash pickup had come before breakfast, and by late morning, the can should have been empty. I grabbed the handle and tilted it toward me.
It barely moved.
