When Bethany moved into her dream home, she visualized peaceful days by the lake with her two sons. However, her next-door neighbors transformed their idyllic new life into a battleground. Just when she thought her happy days ended, an unpredicted twist of fate taught her neighbors a remarkable lesson.
Hi! I’m Bethany, a single mom of two boys, Austin (10) and Sheldon (12), and we just moved into our dream home a few months ago.
I was so happy to provide my kids with a peaceful, nature-filled life in this new neighborhood.
When we first saw this house, the kids were over the moon. The backyard had a beautiful little lake that we would get to share access to with our neighbors.
“Mom, can we get a canoe? Please, please, please?” they begged.
I laughed and said, “Of course, as soon as we’re all settled in!”
The first few weeks were joyful.
That’s when we met Oswald and Patricia, our next-door neighbors. They had spurnt in their eyes from the moment we introduced ourselves. It seemed like they weren’t too happy about having us as their neighbors.
“So you’re the ones hogging our lake, huh?” Oswald grumbled.
I was taken aback.
“Your lake? But the realtor said we all shared access to it.”
“Well, she didn’t tell you the whole story, did she? This lake is ours, and we don’t appreciate you letting your brats play in it all day long.”
Brats? Did he just call my kids brats? I thought. How dare he?
I tried to reason with him, explaining that the kids were being respectful and not causing any trouble.
But Oswald and his wife just glared at me.
“We want them to stay off our property. If we see them out there again, there will be consequences.”
At that point, I knew I had to have a talk with the kids.
“Guys, I know how much you love the lake, but it seems our neighbors have an issue with us using it. So, for now, I need you to stay away from that area of the backyard, okay?”
“But Mom, we were gonna go fishing tomorrow!” Austin complained. “That’s not fair.”
Sheldon chimed in, “Yeah, why do they get to decide if we can use the lake or not? It’s not just theirs!”
“I know, sweetie, I know,” I sighed. “But we have to pick our battles. Let’s just give them some space for now, and hopefully, they’ll come around.”
A few days later, I was out hanging laundry when I heard Oswald yelling again. The kids had taken the canoe out, and he was screaming at them to get off his property.
I rushed over and tried to explain that they were in the water, not on his land. But he wouldn’t listen.
The kids had decided to go fishing, and I explained I’d let them since they’d been so good about staying away from the lake.
But as soon as they got their rods out, here comes Oswald again.
“That’s it, I’ve had it with you polluting my lake! Do you have any idea how much environmental damage those hooks and lines can do?”
“But we’re just fishing, we’re not hurting anything!” Sheldon tried to explain.
With that, he stomped back inside. The kids were destr0yed. Again.
The next day, I went out to hang more laundry and what do I see but a fence going up in the lake, dividing it right down the middle.
I was surprised.
“Oswald, you can’t do this! That lake belongs to both of our properties,” I said.
“Actually, I can. And I just did,” he smirked. “That lake is mine, and I’ll do whatever I want with it.”
“But what about my kids? They love playing out here, you can’t just take that away from them!”
Oswald shrugged. “Not my problem. They need to find somewhere else to play.”
As we were driving back home the next evening, I saw an excavator in our backyard.
To my horror, the excavator was in the process of burying our half of the lake under a mountain of dirt.
“No, no, no!” I cried, jumping out of the car.
The kids followed, equally devastated.
“Mom, they’re k*lling the fishies!” Austin wailed.
At that point, I knew I had to stop this. I immediately stormed over to the workers.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Get that thing out of my backyard right now!”
“Sorry ma’am, we’ve been hired to fill in this section of the lake. Not our call.”
I whirled around to see Oswald standing there.
“You!” I shouted. “How dare you do this? That’s our property, you can’t just get rid of it!”
“That’s your property but the lake belongs to me,” he smiled. “I’m just deleting it because it’s been nothing but a nuisance, lowering my property value.”
I was seething. “You’re insane! This is illegal, you can’t just bulldoze our land.”
His entire backyard was flooded within minutes, and then the water began entering his house.
“What the—?!” he shouted as he rushed inside.
“Oswald, do something! Stop this! The water’s going to destr0y everything,” Patricia yelled.
I could see the workers looking at each other in panic. And I guess Oswald also realized it.
“You idiots!” he yelled at the workers. “I’m not paying you a cent! Get out of here!”
Once the workers were gone, I quickly hired my own crew to change our section of the lake.
Within a few days, the water was back to normal and the kids were out there fishing and playing to their hearts’ content.
