This morning while I was in the bathroom preparing myself to go to work, my mobile phone rang, I quickly ran to the room (where the phone was) to see who it was. It was 'Chupacabra' (not his real name of course), my neighbor, a Filipino, who I almost never see. He's like an urban legend to me now. You can almost call it a 'sighting' whenever you accidentally see him somewhere out there, and that's just one of the many reasons why I call him so.
Anyway, I was perplexed why he wanted to call me (ehem! I mean, missed call me). He never calls me unless he needs help on something that would benefit himself alone. Then suddenly it struck me, that maybe there's something happened to my poor little car? I always position my car near the apartment's gate (if it's available) and he can easily see my car whenever he comes out of his apartment building which is just in front of mine.
And sure enough, that was exactly what I saw when I went out, but not as what I imagined it would be. Thank God! I saw the bumper of the white Toyota 4x4 truck of my Saudi neighbor who is living in the apartment building next to mine, stuck on the front of my poor helpless little Suzuki city car. I ran inside my car and backed the car a few feet so that I could see the severity of the damage. A small part of my car's bumper had folded inward which I immediately undid using just my bare hand.
What had happened this morning bothered me a lot because I believe it was intentional. I think my neighbor is trying to bully me. This was not the first time it happened. Late last year, around 10 PM, while I was having a conversation with 'Chupacabra' near my car that was parked at my favorite spot, he came driving his white Toyota 4x4 truck and was looking for a space to park it. Instead of parking his car in front of mine, he backed a little bit to talk to me. He told me something in Arabic which I didn't understand. I can sense his anger. But then I realized he wanted me to transfer my car somewhere else and give the space to him. I didn't give him the space, but I moved my car just a little bit.
Since then, every time I see him in the morning or in the afternoon, he would often look at me with hate in his eyes. He is obviously jealous of the parking space which is in front of my apartment. I often come home a lot earlier than him everyday from work and that's the reason why most of the time I have the privilege of choosing my parking space. That space is supposed to be the parking space for the tenants of my apartment building. Why doesn't he park in front of his apartment building, that would make sense, right?
I bet he can't do that to his fellow Arabs. He's bullying me because he knows that I'm a Filipino, that he thinks he can easily intimidate me, and that my car is just a cheap little old running piece of shit to him (sorry for the word). I really have a lot of things to say right now, but I would rather not go on with it, I might just say something that is against my principle and against my Christian upbringing.
Even though what he did was not right, I'll just have to be wise about it, shut up and understand what had transpired this morning. I think it would be better that way.
