There’s a little white house that lives up the street. It’s a small house on a small lot, but otherwise I think it’s kind of cute. I’m not sure that anyone lives there right now — the yard certainly isn’t maintained.
For the past couple of weeks, there’s been a manual reel mower sitting in the front yard. It was sitting upright, as if somebody had stopped in mid-mow, but eventually it fell to the ground. The grass has been growing up around it: the hunter has become the hunted!
Yesterday, however, I noticed that the mower had been moved. It was ditched at the top of the hill in somebody else’s yard. Someone — probably a kid — had wheeled it a few hundred feet and then discarded it. “I ought to put it back where it belongs,” I thought. But I didn’t do it.
That’s okay, though. This afternoon as I was walking home, I noticed that the mower had been returned to the exact position from which it had been taken. That, my friends, is neighborliness!
A really good neighbor would have mowed the lawn.
I have long feared this day… lawn mowers becoming self aware. It is part of the machine uprising. Better go unplug the toaster before it is too late.
That house looks like a house in “to kill a mockingbird” – the next door ones :-)
I agree with Tiffany. In fact, I just clicked the comment link to say the exact same thing!
Then again, it’s possible that Will is right. It could’ve become self-aware, and it might’ve been trying to escape. At the top of the hill, it got tired and stopped to rest. Or maybe it stopped when it heard your footsteps on the sidewalk. Either way, it’s quite possible that the mower is now very unhappy to be back where it started.