I think moving houses is one of the most stressful things, at least for me. There is so much that one has to do before actually moving. You have to find a house in a neighbourhood you like. It has to be just right for you, and it has to be within your budget. This is the hustle you go through when you want to move. It is your decision. Now imagine having to move because if you don’t, your life will literally be in danger.
That is the life Charlotte, one of the main characters in Abby Jimenez’s short story, The Fall Risk, is subjected to: having to move houses because her safety depends on it. This time, Charlotte has just moved into another place, now on the second floor, where it will take her stalker, George, a bit of time to reach her.
Charlotte works from home because she cannot afford to be outside, where her stalker can easily find her. One Valentine’s Day weekend, the stairs leading to her new apartment are removed by mistake, leaving her stuck inside. But this is nothing new to her. She is already used to being confined to her home.
‘The isolation was the worst part. Well, the second worst part. The first was the afraid for my life at all times thing. But I used to be social. I used to work in an office with coworkers, and we’d go out for drinks, and I’d go on vacations and have lunches with people,’ she thinks to herself, wondering how her life has taken a turn for the worse because of one person who feels entitled to her existence.
I imagine how tough this kind of life must be. You have to look over your shoulder, even in your own home, because you never know when your stalker will figure out your location.
Jimenez touches on the consequences of a system that fails to protect women like Charlotte, who are scared to live their own lives because there is a man on the loose determined to make her life a living hell. Because he can.
The emotional damage caused by stalking is evident in Charlotte’s experience. ‘I was furious at the system that allowed this. The law enforcement and courts that didn’t protect me…’ Charlotte thinks to herself.
It is during this incident with the stairs that Charlotte meets Seth, her next-door neighbour. With the stairs removed, they are both stuck in their apartments for three days. Seth is an arborist who loves to talk about trees every chance he gets. His divorce is finalised on the same day the two meet. He struggles with the fact that his marriage ended even though he had done everything right.
With that experience, trust doesn’t come easily to him. It wouldn’t come easily to anyone who has experienced betrayal from the person who vowed to love them and be faithful to them.
But with their accidental confinement, something else happens between the two neighbours. They decide to make the most of the three days, and a friendship is formed. They talk freely from their balconies, which have become their designated meeting point. Charlotte, understandably, has a complicated relationship with trusting men, which is why she carries bear spray everywhere she goes, even if that is only as far as her balcony.
Yet, in Seth, she finds someone worth trusting. Someone who keeps his word. And for a person who has spent so much time living in fear, that means something.
Jimenez makes it a point to showcase how knowing your neighbour, or at least the people who live close to you, can make your life much safer. Knowing that someone nearby can come to your rescue, should you need it, makes life a bit more bearable, especially in a case like Charlotte’s. As her friend and self-defence coach reminds her over the phone: ‘Knowing your neighbour makes you safer.’
I think of my neighbour next door, whom I have never seen, but I know there is someone who lives there. I know that because I can hear life happening as I head out of or into my apartment. I think we have become such individualists to the extent that this has become the new normal. But this is not the case at my parents’ home. We know our neighbours. They know us. We are a community.
The story is fast-paced and packs quite a lot of content into a few pages. It is warm and hopeful. Jimenez’s writing is humorous, relatable, and full of lovable characters. Looking at Charlotte and Seth’s friendship, I wonder how much better off we all could be if we allowed ourselves to live a little and create a community that can catch us when we fall.