My Neighbor Blocked My Driveway Three Times Until I Taught Her A Lesson – The Archivist

And the reason was the angle.

 

“The angle of your driveway,” I said.

 

She flushed. “My hedge makes it difficult when I’m coming in from the road. The turning radius—”

 

“Your hedge,” I said. “Makes it difficult to park in your own driveway.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“So you used mine.”

 

“I was only there for a few minutes!”

 

“For twenty-two mornings,” I said. “You decided my children’s school record was a reasonable price for not having to maneuver into your own driveway.”

 

Ezoic

 

The enforcement officer stepped forward. “Madam, you need to decide whether you’re moving the vehicle now or allowing removal to proceed.”

 

Denise looked at him, then at the truck, then at me.

 

She moved the car.

 

The penalty notice was issued regardless. The formal record of the complaint, with its twenty-two uploaded photographs and its timestamps and its reference number, remained.

 

She drove the Corsa around the corner and parked it on the side street with the energy of someone being deeply wronged. Then she walked back to her own house and went inside.

Ezoic

The enforcement officer thanked me for the documentation. The recovery driver packed up his equipment with the efficient cheerfulness of someone whose morning had gone exactly as expected.

By seven-forty-two, both boys were in the back seat of my car in their school uniforms and I was reversing out of my own driveway without consulting anyone.

Oliver clapped.

Actual, genuine applause, the spontaneous kind, the way he applauded at the end of films he particularly loved.

“Mum! We’re early!”

That stung more than I expected. Not because he said it badly, but because a six-year-old being genuinely delighted that his own driveway is usable is an indictment of how long I had let the situation run before doing anything effective about it.

Ezoic

We arrived at school twelve minutes before the gate opened.

Ben looked at me in the rearview mirror.

“Do I still have a late mark?”

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