The Bed and Crack

I think my neighbors are crack dealers.

Of course I'd say that. I live in the Central District where every other night I hear what could be interpreted as a gunshot, firework, or crappy car backfiring. Two houses down in one direction hosts a menagerie of pit bulls, cats, birds, and a screaming old woman. A few houses down in the other direction hosts two large dogs who sit on the roof and howl. While some houses on the block are gleaming products of gentrification, the majority are run down with broken shutters, rusty gates, and overgrown yards. Of course I'd play it up and say that my neighbors are drug dealers whether it was true or not. The setting is perfect, why not add in a few seedy characters?

However, what say you to this? It all started back in October when one of my roommates brought her car from home. She unknowingly parked with her bumper semi blocking the entrance to their driveway. Later that night she retrieved this note clumsily taped to her windshield. Rude, right? Uncalled for, even. What kind of reaction is that? Clearly the one of someone cracked out and pissed off. My roommate went over in the evening to apologize and she rang the doorbell. I was spying from our front door, could see that they were home but they didn't respond to the knocks or the doorbell. Hmm...that's when we started to wonder.

Then, a few weeks later it was getting to be Halloween. They put a huge, almost glowing skull poster up in their window, which got a startled reaction from my roommates and I the first (and second and third) time we walked by it. Yes, it was creepy. Our front walkway is level to their living room so in leaving our house it's impossible to not look in their window unless one was to stare at the ground while walking. A day later, the same poster showed up in that window. It was clearly for my roommates and me as no one else would be able to see that window from the street. Yikes. Possibly retaliation for the car incident? We had to live with that for over a week.

In accordance with previous decoration habits, our neighbors then got into the Christmas spirit (which we believe is a front) because although their house is decked out in "happy holidays" banners and snowmen, they also cardboarded their windows for a few weeks time. A day or two before the cardboard went up, we noticed a grill in their living room. I don't know anything about crack, but if a grill is involved, that's pretty suspicious. Why else would a grill be in the living room rather than the backyard? They gave us a couch when we first moved in this summer. It's hollow on one side. To stash drugs or money, I'm sure. My neighbors are weird. We're trying to play it cool and not interact with them. It's a pretty sketch situation. The final clue is this: Ever since we've moved in, cars have been driving up to the house and parking outside of it. The owners rarely leave their cars and instead, someone comes down to talk to the driver and then goes back into the house. I can't tell if there's an exchange or not, but it's pretty suspicious that no one leaves the car and it seems to be a different car and person every time. Once I saw a guy in a cowboy hat. Totally not the "type" to be hanging out with my neighbors. Haven't seen him since.

Quoth Mr. Rogers, "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,"

R-