When my neighbor wouldn’t turn off his bright floodlights at night, my husband and I needed a clever solution to keep the peace.
When the Thompsons moved in next door, they seemed friendly. My wife, Gia, and Susan, the neighbor, quickly bonded while chatting over unpacked boxes. We thought we finally had some neighbors our age to socialize with. Mark, the husband, was often away for work, while Susan stayed home and had a long list of phobias, including fear of the dark, thunderstorms, snakes, clowns, and spiders.
As time passed, Susan’s fear of the dark created an issue that affected Gia and me. Their floodlights, installed soon after they moved in, were excessively bright, like those outside prisons. Gia joked that they could probably be seen from space.
Despite our attempts to address the issue, Susan insisted she needed the lights on for safety when Mark was away. We tried thick curtains and rearranging our bedroom, but nothing helped. After a week of sleepless nights, I approached Susan, asking her to turn off the floodlights after midnight, as they shined directly into our bedroom. She explained her need for safety and refused my suggestion to install a timer.
After several attempts to reason with her and Mark, who felt similarly protective of Susan, we continued to lose sleep. Frustrated, I considered drastic measures, like unscrewing the bulbs or using a pellet gun, but Gia reminded me to stay calm. Instead, she suggested a harmless plan while she and Susan went out for nails.
The next day, I climbed a ladder and slightly unscrewed each bulb to disrupt the connection. That night, when Susan turned on the lights, they flickered and went out. Gia and I finally enjoyed peaceful sleep. Surprisingly, days turned into weeks, and the lights stayed off.
However, one day, I saw Mark fixing the bulbs again. The floodlights blazed back to life that night, and I knew I had to repeat my trick. This cycle continued for months—every time Mark tightened the bulbs, I loosened them.
Then one Saturday, as I trimmed the hedges, Mark approached me. He mentioned his floodlights kept going out, and I managed to keep a straight face while agreeing it might be due to vibrations from the street. I suggested he could leave them off, and he seemed to consider it. After that conversation, Gia and I enjoyed our peaceful, dark evenings once again.
Yesterday I was washing and cleaning the car, and then I found an earring under the seat
Yesterday, while I was cleaning the car, I found an earring under the seat. It shocked me so much that I felt sick to my stomach and even threw up right there.
I took the earring inside and confronted my husband with it, asking him angrily: “What is this!?” He responded calmly, saying: “You’re not foolish, you know what it is”.
I explained that I found it in our car, and he suddenly got defensive, claiming he must have dropped it while giving a colleague a ride. He swore it wasn’t what I suspected.
The next day, I went to his workplace and questioned his colleagues to find out who the earring belonged to. When I reached the blonde woman he often has coffee with (who insists she’s just a colleague), I asked if it was hers. She swore it wasn’t hers, reassured me that my husband loves me and would never cheat.
I’m confused and torn. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’m considering taking the kids and going to my mom’s place.
Leave a Reply