NEIGHBOR

My temporary next door neighbor is also the cleaning lady for this house. She is 80. Over and over she's told me she cleans with Clorox, only thing that gets rid of the germs. There are plastic bottles of Clorox in the bathroom cabinets, above the washing machine, and under the kitchen sink in this house. She cleans with Clorox. Also cleans with a new mop head every time a renter leaves. The headless mop resides in the 2nd bedroom along with a vacuum cleaner which is not hers. My temporary neighbors brings over her own vacuum cleaner to clean the house after a renter leaves and then changes the bag so she doesn't bring the renter's germs back to her house.

Yesterday, my neighbor phoned me at 7 AM to remind me to put out my garbage pail. At 7:30 she called to tell me to straighten it out, the wind knocked it over.

Today I looked out the kitchen window at 6 in the morning and she was on the patio, watering the cactus and lantana. A few minutes later she was standing in the side yard, hose in hand, shooting jets at mesquites and agaves. She is perched on a hill, a woman who wears a First Alert device around her neck "for when", she tells me, "not if" she falls.

I ask why she does this and she says she wants the neighborhood to look nice.

And so, who is my neighbor?