I live in a pretty good neighborhood with pretty ok people. We get a lot of older gentlemen and military families but right where my house is we had two strange families that lived on either side of our house. One had a crazy guy who had a wife who drank all the time and always carried around a yapping Yorkie called Osker. The other were more of shut ins and didn’t really talk to others. They have their own garden and you only see them when they are taking care of it. For years I got to see glimpse's of each side showing their true colors.

The neighbor who had a wife that drank all the time was always ripping people off, showing up outside in his boxers doing one thing or another at random times, and eventually he got to renting out his house like an apartment complex which was and is illegal but the cops never arrested him. Of course for years our whole neighborhood just wanted him to leave and we used to make bets on how long he would last. Maybe another couple years. Five years? Six years? We never knew. He was always doing something that we thought was outrageous and every time we always thought "this time he will be taken away and finally he will be gone" but every time he seemed to get away with whatever scheme he was up to. It wasn’t until last year that he finally left. The reason? Eviction. After all he did what got him was a simple reality of him not being able to pay to live there anymore.

Not too long after that a family bought the house and started to make repairs. It was most definitely a fixer upper and we werent sure how it would all turn out. After all the house was made to be three different apartments, didn’t have a garage, a dock that was rickety and scary, and the yard was pretty trashed. Through it all though they seem to have wanted to stick with it. So they trudged on and kept making repairs, taking thing out, cleaning up, and slowly they have made it into a beautiful home.

I remember thinking the first time I saw them out there that I was unsure of how this would go. I mean we had a crazy neighbors for years, what are the chances that they would be normal? 50%? 20%? 5%? Each time I saw them I kept thinking to myself that I should go outside and say something but I never could get myself to do it. I wasn’t sure why but I felt this weird sense that it wasn’t a good time. I thought that maybe things would be ok and who knows they would give up and leave. I listened, observed, and waited. Each time I heard them outside they sounded like they were having fun. Each time I saw them out in the backyard I got this feeling that I wanted to be outside to. It was strange. Never in all my years of living next door did I think I would WANT to go outside and be apart of my neighbors life. I always lived with weirdos and so I always told myself that it was too much trouble.

I remember just going outside one day and seeing them on the beach. There was this older lady with a young child just hanging out. I walked down to the beach and at first I thought it was odd that this pull I felt brought me this far. I haven't felt this way in a long while. Instantly she smiled at me and said hello. Her smile was contagious and I instantly felt warmed. There was only one other person that made me feel so at home and she is like a mother to me. Ironically their names are the same, Jess.

She started talking to me and felt so weird. It was like I was in the presence of Jess but, I knew that she was in Atlanta with her wife. So I instantly relaxed and became aware that I was outside, in the sun and talking to a stranger. She was open and started asking me questions about where I work, what I do, What my dad does, how long I have lived next door, etc. I felt so open and I felt so….raw. I started talking and I instantly felt that connection. I wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the fact that she was so nice, maybe it was the fact that they had an old dog that I ran into a couple times before I ran into her, maybe it was the idea that this was real and that I was next to a sane person who happened to move in next door.

Soon one visit led to another and now every time they are outside I feel that pull to go outside and join them. I feel myself getting in the sun and just enjoying their company. I started to make a better connection with them and I started to get to know them individually and started to remember all their names. After all it is a married couple with four kids. Usually I am terrible with families, either they think I'm too weird or they loose interest. So far I feel excepted and I really hope I can continue to hangout with them. Even though it hasn’t been that long since I have started to hangout with them and build this relationship with them I can say that I definitely feel something. I feel like I can talk to her. I feel like I can go over and they would let me be around them all day and recently they even were ok with me taking photos of them.

Maybe it’s the name, maybe it’s the way their spirits are, maybe its just because they both are so alike that I instantly feel at home with them but these two people, Jess my neighbor and Jess my old Earthbound manager and now someone that is like my mother, have made such an impact on me and my soul.

Sometimes all it takes is a conversation to change your life.