Im exhausted by all her tales about her relatives!
She is our neighbour, cant you just listen to her? my husband asked.
She always goes on about the same thing.
Alice is usually a patient and gentle woman, but not when it comes to her neighbour, Janet. Her husband could never quite understand why this was. At one point, the families had been quite friendly. Janet is fifteen years older than Alice.
When Janets parents passed away, she and her two sisters began sharing an old semi-detached house on Chestnut Lane. Everything ought to have gone smoothlythey all agreed to sell the house and split the money three ways. But there had been a dispute.
Alice didnt know the ins and outs, only snippets from her grandmother: Janet had pleaded to stay on in the house because shed fallen on hard times, vowing to pay her sisters their share whenever she could manage it. The sisters had agreed and officially signed their inheritance over. What happened after that, Alice couldnt say for sure, but she suspected Janet never paid her family back. Janet often popped round Alices for tea, lamenting about her sisters, Theyve forgotten all about me. They never ring, never write, never bother to drop round. Theyre only interested in money.
Of course, Alice thought, you did promise to pay them! But instead, Janet painted herself as the sole victim, and everyone else, uncompromising and cruel.
I almost gave them a bell, Janet would say, stirring her third cup of tea, but I barely scrape enough together just to keep the roof over my head. Shouldnt they cough up for the upkeep as well? Its not only my house, is it?
How do you mean? Didnt they sign it away?
So what if they did? Its still theirs, in a way! They grew up here, didnt they? Its their fathers old place. Dont they care?
They might be sore you didnt give them their share, like you said you would, ventured Alice quietly.
In the first place, they agreed to itno one twisted their arms. And in the second, I clearly said Id give them the money when I was able. Im still not. Would you really expect me to sell up just to pay them off? Where would I go then? No, nono one thinks for a moment about what becomes of me. Its always all about money.
Alice glanced at her husband, who sat listening across the kitchen table, his face drawn with that sleepy, far-off look. The sort that said he finally understoodhe wouldnt ask again why Alice dreaded Janets visits.
