Friends in 'High' Places

This morning I received a card from P. - my next door neighbour, an ex-naval officer in his 70s. It was a white card, adorned with winter flowers. In it he expressed his regret at my 'ordeal at the hands of that dreadful person below you' and wrote of his determination 'in my capacity as elected chairperson of the Housing association' to 'get him moved elsewhere. (Ooh, it appears as though I have a powerful person on my side.)

I panicked when I saw those words. This is not what I wanted, not what I wanted at all and I've never espressed the desire for his departure. Rightly or wrongly, I no longer feel that he poses a threat to me. If anything I pose a threat to him as I am about to take away the thing he loves most - his pride. I am going to humiliate him; to make him pay for what he has done.

Because I don't think he's encountered someone who's been prepared to do that before.

And it's about time he did.