My Impossible Neighbor (Part 2)
As I told you last week my impossible neighbor is so impossible that I have more episodes about him to narrate and which you will probably say that I am exaggerating, but believe me, I am not.
I suggest you read the last episode of last week’s story which ended with my explosion and I could not stop myself from offending my neighbor for the shameful way he was treating me and even my son. But as I already said last week, he does not know what ‘shame’ is and I know that in his way of reasoning, he thought that he did nothing out of the ordinary and it was I who was wrong.
After this quarrel, I insisted to pay him the rent and that he should not ask for any favors from me and my son. Yes, I started to pay the rent, and what a rent I should say! He took advantage of the fact that now I was settled there and that I had nowhere to go. All the others had bought the garages, I was the only one to whom he rented the garage. I could not afford to buy it even because the bank would not loan me the sum as I had quite a big family and my teacher’s salary was not enough to cover the installments of the loan. I could not do otherwise. So now I had to work more and work harder to try to compensate for the rent.
In spite of this event, my wife and my children were always on good terms with his wife and children……. and that’s the way I wanted things to be. I wished several times to face him and talk some sense in him about the way he behaves, perhaps he would change at least a little but he did not give me a chance as he believed that I was the one who was ungrateful to the person (that’s him) who helped me and was so generous to me.
After few months something happened. My impossible neighbor got sick, seriously sick. Without hesitation I went to visit him in hospital and I gave him some of the usual stuff which is given in such situations. When he saw me he got very emotional and I told him to calm down and that the past is gone and we will be friends again. He agreed and we talked about several things and I encouraged him to get better soon. And after a couple of weeks he was back home and we would meet on the roof and talk as best friends. A month later he was fully recovered and back to business.
He started to come over to my garage when he would be working in the factory which as you know was only some meters away from my garage. Soon he asked me to help him do quotations and write estimations to send to his clients. Next he reconnected the telephone extension and asked me to take messages for him when he would be away so that he won’t lose any costumers. I agreed in the hope that he will realize how much I too had helped him but as one Maltese proverb goes, “if you cut the pig’s tail, the pig will still be a pig.” OK, I accepted to do some favors for him but when he asked me to help his employee to carry the sheets of marble and when he asked me to do some work for another person who bought one of his garages, I firmly said, “No”.
Once he had a big misadventure. I was not part of it but he himself narrated this to me when again I went to visit him in hospital. In fact it was his wife that gave us the news that Tom was badly injured and he was in hospital, but she did not tell us what had happened. When I saw him I was surprised at the sight. His face was badly bruised; he had a cut under one of his eyes and one back eye. He had one broken arm and as he later told me he also suffered two broken ribs. Obviously I asked him what had happened to him.
His version was that he had hired a builder to build a large garage for him in another village. When the work was ready he did not want to pay the builder because he said he did not do a good job and he mentioned to me several faults which the builder had done. At first I thought that since the work was not well done, perhaps something fell off on him causing all the injuries. “So is he going to compensate you for your injuries? He surely is not a good builder if it fell on you.” In short this was not the cause of all those injuries. In fact the builder told Tom to get an architect to decide whether his work was good or not. And the architect said that there was nothing wrong with the work. But Tom insisted that he did not like it and there were several things that he wanted to be corrected or else the builder should lower the price considerable.
In truth I knew that it was Tom’s practice to do this sort of thing just to get the work at a cheaper price. He succeeded several times to do this but this time it backfired on him because after some arguing the builder lost it and he gave Tom a good beating which was long overdue.
Now I am going to tell you the last case in which Tom and I got involved in. This was when he was still my neighbor. As I said, although at that time Tom still had his Marble Works Factory, his main job was in dealing in property and being what he is, he did a very good job and was a success. Once as he often did he visited me in my workshop. He began to speak in a bombastic tone saying, “I am on something big and if I succeed I will be getting a very good commission!” He told me that he was searching for a very big villa because a wealthy client of his wanted to open a home for the elderly.
When I heard this, I immediately remembered that my wife’s sister wanted to sell their villa. In fact when my wife’s sister got married she and her husband migrated to Canada and there they lived for several years. In Canada they made quite a fortune. But then they decided to return to the island. At first they went to live in a rented flat but almost immediately they planned to build a big beautiful villa in the countryside surrounded by nature. In a year or two, the villa was ready and they went to live there with their four children. My wife and I visited them several times and may I say that this villa was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. But it happened that my wife’s sister could not get used to that atmosphere which she described as too quiet and staying there all day long alone (the children at school and her husband at work), she felt very lonely. Moreover, during the night she was afraid as it was detached from other buildings. This caused my wife’s sister to be very depressed and she and her husband decided to sell their villa.
Knowing Tom, I was careful what to say, “How much do you think, will you be earning if this operation is successful.”
With an air of someone who thinks that he can handle and manipulate everything and everyone he replied, “Suppose I find this type of villa which costs around three hundred thousand pounds sterling.” (In those days, here in Malta our currency was in pounds, shillings and pence.) “My share would be one per cent of that sum………that is I will get 1% of 300.000 pounds…………. you tell me how much is this.”
“Three thousand,” I promptly replied.
“You see how I make money just by talking and in a short time,” was his answer.
Cautiously I asked him, “So if I tell you that I know of such a big house, do I get three thousand pounds too?”
“Of course” he said, I get the commission from my client and you get the same amount from the person who wants to sell. But why are you asking? Do you know someone whose wants to sell a villa?”
“Not only do I know but I think that the villa I have I mind is the ideal for your client’s purpose.”
Then we discussed the details and in the following days we visited the villa and he dealt with my wife’s sister and her husband about the price. He seemed to like it but he told them that first he has to talk to his client about the price. On our way back together, my neighbor told me that he was almost certain that the deal will be a success. He explained again that it works like this: he gets the commission from his client and I get the commission from my client. I was happy because a sum of about three thousand pounds would have surely solved many problems for us. At home my wife and I talked about what we would do with that sum.
The next day in the afternoon Tom came again to my workshop with a big grin on his face. “I spoke to my client and he we will go to see the villa tomorrow. I am very positive that you and I will make some money this time and I have a brilliant idea to make even more.”
That’s excellent, tell me how.” I replied.
He told me that since both his client and my client were very wealthy, he was going to ask for a 3% commission from both sides. He added that for them this is peanuts but for us it will make a great difference. I said, “Especially for me because if I am right, instead of 3,000 pound each we will get 9,000 each. Oh that will be great.” And to show him how much I appreciated this, I took the bottle of whiskey which I kept for special occasions such as Christmas, and we celebrated by having a couple of drinks.
All proceeded as we wished. His client was happy with the villa and my client was happy with the price he offered. They even both agreed to give us 3% commission.
And all four of us were happy …….. I was extremely happy. After the meeting we left the villa. His client left in his car and we drove back home together in my car. As we drove along, my neighbor was quite silent which was very unusual. At one point I asked him, “Are you alright? Why are you so quite?”
Then the unexpected which in a way I should have expected happened. With great difficulty he began to try to reason and explain, “I think you got it wrong!”
“What did I get wrong? Everything is clear to me! What are you talking about? I said.
“Because you are thinking that you are getting 9,000 pounds, are you?” he asked.
“Of course!” I promptly replied.
“That’s were you got it wrong because the idea of the 3% was mine so your share is the original 1% from your client and my share is 3% from my client and 2% from your client.”
“You surely are joking, you can’t be that mad! You always said that I get all the commission from my client and you get all the commission from your client………..it is simple logic! And don’t tell me that you meant what you just said from the time you told me about the 3%, remember what you said that being rich they won’t mind giving us the 3% but for us it will make a big difference! And why did we celebrate with a drink and you even shook my hand. Do you know what happened? I tell you what happened to you…………. seeing that the deal was a success you got greedy and wanted almost everything for yourself. Are you not ashamed that you can’t even keep your word……you really are a not a gentleman. You really deserve another beating and if I don’t get my share I don’t know how this will end. You are just a greedy pig!”
We arrived home. He did not say a word but got out of my car, slammed the door and went inside his house. I entered home too and told everything to my wife. She asked me what was going to happen. I told her that all we can do is to tell her sister’s husband to give the commission straight to me. So I phoned him, told him the whole story and he assured me that he will do just that.
Although Tom lived next door I did not see him in the following days. Neither did I see him at work. After about a week my client phoned me to tell me that the buyer cancelled the deal. I am sure that this was Tom’s doing. Another chance to earn some money was gone. Probably knowing Tom, he turned the island upside down to find a villa which was for sale. He contacted the owner so that he would get both clients’ commissions, all 6% for himself.
I really was disappointed but a few days later I calmed down and decided to try to forget because if I kept thinking about it, I surely would have done something that is not in my nature. Fortunately, soon after this episode, our impossible next door neighbor and all his family moved house to another village. Sometimes we cross each others’ path but all we say is just “Hello”, “Goodbye.”
Quote of the day:
Be what you want to be not what others want to see.
As I told you last week my impossible neighbor is so impossible that I have more episodes about him to narrate and which you will probably say that I am exaggerating, but believe me, I am not.
I suggest you read the last episode of last week’s story which ended with my explosion and I could not stop myself from offending my neighbor for the shameful way he was treating me and even my son. But as I already said last week, he does not know what ‘shame’ is and I know that in his way of reasoning, he thought that he did nothing out of the ordinary and it was I who was wrong.
After this quarrel, I insisted to pay him the rent and that he should not ask for any favors from me and my son. Yes, I started to pay the rent, and what a rent I should say! He took advantage of the fact that now I was settled there and that I had nowhere to go. All the others had bought the garages, I was the only one to whom he rented the garage. I could not afford to buy it even because the bank would not loan me the sum as I had quite a big family and my teacher’s salary was not enough to cover the installments of the loan. I could not do otherwise. So now I had to work more and work harder to try to compensate for the rent.
In spite of this event, my wife and my children were always on good terms with his wife and children……. and that’s the way I wanted things to be. I wished several times to face him and talk some sense in him about the way he behaves, perhaps he would change at least a little but he did not give me a chance as he believed that I was the one who was ungrateful to the person (that’s him) who helped me and was so generous to me.
After few months something happened. My impossible neighbor got sick, seriously sick. Without hesitation I went to visit him in hospital and I gave him some of the usual stuff which is given in such situations. When he saw me he got very emotional and I told him to calm down and that the past is gone and we will be friends again. He agreed and we talked about several things and I encouraged him to get better soon. And after a couple of weeks he was back home and we would meet on the roof and talk as best friends. A month later he was fully recovered and back to business.
He started to come over to my garage when he would be working in the factory which as you know was only some meters away from my garage. Soon he asked me to help him do quotations and write estimations to send to his clients. Next he reconnected the telephone extension and asked me to take messages for him when he would be away so that he won’t lose any costumers. I agreed in the hope that he will realize how much I too had helped him but as one Maltese proverb goes, “if you cut the pig’s tail, the pig will still be a pig.” OK, I accepted to do some favors for him but when he asked me to help his employee to carry the sheets of marble and when he asked me to do some work for another person who bought one of his garages, I firmly said, “No”.
Once he had a big misadventure. I was not part of it but he himself narrated this to me when again I went to visit him in hospital. In fact it was his wife that gave us the news that Tom was badly injured and he was in hospital, but she did not tell us what had happened. When I saw him I was surprised at the sight. His face was badly bruised; he had a cut under one of his eyes and one back eye. He had one broken arm and as he later told me he also suffered two broken ribs. Obviously I asked him what had happened to him.
His version was that he had hired a builder to build a large garage for him in another village. When the work was ready he did not want to pay the builder because he said he did not do a good job and he mentioned to me several faults which the builder had done. At first I thought that since the work was not well done, perhaps something fell off on him causing all the injuries. “So is he going to compensate you for your injuries? He surely is not a good builder if it fell on you.” In short this was not the cause of all those injuries. In fact the builder told Tom to get an architect to decide whether his work was good or not. And the architect said that there was nothing wrong with the work. But Tom insisted that he did not like it and there were several things that he wanted to be corrected or else the builder should lower the price considerable.
In truth I knew that it was Tom’s practice to do this sort of thing just to get the work at a cheaper price. He succeeded several times to do this but this time it backfired on him because after some arguing the builder lost it and he gave Tom a good beating which was long overdue.
Now I am going to tell you the last case in which Tom and I got involved in. This was when he was still my neighbor. As I said, although at that time Tom still had his Marble Works Factory, his main job was in dealing in property and being what he is, he did a very good job and was a success. Once as he often did he visited me in my workshop. He began to speak in a bombastic tone saying, “I am on something big and if I succeed I will be getting a very good commission!” He told me that he was searching for a very big villa because a wealthy client of his wanted to open a home for the elderly.
When I heard this, I immediately remembered that my wife’s sister wanted to sell their villa. In fact when my wife’s sister got married she and her husband migrated to Canada and there they lived for several years. In Canada they made quite a fortune. But then they decided to return to the island. At first they went to live in a rented flat but almost immediately they planned to build a big beautiful villa in the countryside surrounded by nature. In a year or two, the villa was ready and they went to live there with their four children. My wife and I visited them several times and may I say that this villa was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. But it happened that my wife’s sister could not get used to that atmosphere which she described as too quiet and staying there all day long alone (the children at school and her husband at work), she felt very lonely. Moreover, during the night she was afraid as it was detached from other buildings. This caused my wife’s sister to be very depressed and she and her husband decided to sell their villa.
Knowing Tom, I was careful what to say, “How much do you think, will you be earning if this operation is successful.”
With an air of someone who thinks that he can handle and manipulate everything and everyone he replied, “Suppose I find this type of villa which costs around three hundred thousand pounds sterling.” (In those days, here in Malta our currency was in pounds, shillings and pence.) “My share would be one per cent of that sum………that is I will get 1% of 300.000 pounds…………. you tell me how much is this.”
“Three thousand,” I promptly replied.
“You see how I make money just by talking and in a short time,” was his answer.
Cautiously I asked him, “So if I tell you that I know of such a big house, do I get three thousand pounds too?”
“Of course” he said, I get the commission from my client and you get the same amount from the person who wants to sell. But why are you asking? Do you know someone whose wants to sell a villa?”
“Not only do I know but I think that the villa I have I mind is the ideal for your client’s purpose.”
Then we discussed the details and in the following days we visited the villa and he dealt with my wife’s sister and her husband about the price. He seemed to like it but he told them that first he has to talk to his client about the price. On our way back together, my neighbor told me that he was almost certain that the deal will be a success. He explained again that it works like this: he gets the commission from his client and I get the commission from my client. I was happy because a sum of about three thousand pounds would have surely solved many problems for us. At home my wife and I talked about what we would do with that sum.
The next day in the afternoon Tom came again to my workshop with a big grin on his face. “I spoke to my client and he we will go to see the villa tomorrow. I am very positive that you and I will make some money this time and I have a brilliant idea to make even more.”
That’s excellent, tell me how.” I replied.
He told me that since both his client and my client were very wealthy, he was going to ask for a 3% commission from both sides. He added that for them this is peanuts but for us it will make a great difference. I said, “Especially for me because if I am right, instead of 3,000 pound each we will get 9,000 each. Oh that will be great.” And to show him how much I appreciated this, I took the bottle of whiskey which I kept for special occasions such as Christmas, and we celebrated by having a couple of drinks.
All proceeded as we wished. His client was happy with the villa and my client was happy with the price he offered. They even both agreed to give us 3% commission.
And all four of us were happy …….. I was extremely happy. After the meeting we left the villa. His client left in his car and we drove back home together in my car. As we drove along, my neighbor was quite silent which was very unusual. At one point I asked him, “Are you alright? Why are you so quite?”
Then the unexpected which in a way I should have expected happened. With great difficulty he began to try to reason and explain, “I think you got it wrong!”
“What did I get wrong? Everything is clear to me! What are you talking about? I said.
“Because you are thinking that you are getting 9,000 pounds, are you?” he asked.
“Of course!” I promptly replied.
“That’s were you got it wrong because the idea of the 3% was mine so your share is the original 1% from your client and my share is 3% from my client and 2% from your client.”
“You surely are joking, you can’t be that mad! You always said that I get all the commission from my client and you get all the commission from your client………..it is simple logic! And don’t tell me that you meant what you just said from the time you told me about the 3%, remember what you said that being rich they won’t mind giving us the 3% but for us it will make a big difference! And why did we celebrate with a drink and you even shook my hand. Do you know what happened? I tell you what happened to you…………. seeing that the deal was a success you got greedy and wanted almost everything for yourself. Are you not ashamed that you can’t even keep your word……you really are a not a gentleman. You really deserve another beating and if I don’t get my share I don’t know how this will end. You are just a greedy pig!”
We arrived home. He did not say a word but got out of my car, slammed the door and went inside his house. I entered home too and told everything to my wife. She asked me what was going to happen. I told her that all we can do is to tell her sister’s husband to give the commission straight to me. So I phoned him, told him the whole story and he assured me that he will do just that.
Although Tom lived next door I did not see him in the following days. Neither did I see him at work. After about a week my client phoned me to tell me that the buyer cancelled the deal. I am sure that this was Tom’s doing. Another chance to earn some money was gone. Probably knowing Tom, he turned the island upside down to find a villa which was for sale. He contacted the owner so that he would get both clients’ commissions, all 6% for himself.
I really was disappointed but a few days later I calmed down and decided to try to forget because if I kept thinking about it, I surely would have done something that is not in my nature. Fortunately, soon after this episode, our impossible next door neighbor and all his family moved house to another village. Sometimes we cross each others’ path but all we say is just “Hello”, “Goodbye.”
Quote of the day:
Be what you want to be not what others want to see.