The Mysterious Neighbour

There was a boy called Adam Payne - also known as ‘Adam the Pain’ by his friends, family, neighbours and even teachers (but never to his face but in the deep, dark corners of the staff room).  He wasn’t a naughty boy but was rather silly and ended up getting into trouble.  He had a way of turning up when you least expected him.  On good days however, he was an angel.  Well ‘half an angel’ as his Mum liked to call him.

  Adam lived in an ordinary street in an ordinary town – or so everyone thought.  He lived with his Mum, Dad and younger, but bossy sister Sarah.  The neighbours on the right were Mr and Mrs Johnson.  Whenever Adam and Sarah went round (which was quite often) they were offered a grand selection of Mrs Johnson’s scrumptious mouth watering cakes and buns.  Mr Johnson amused them with stories created for overactive imaginations like theirs.

  The neighbour on the other side was a completely different character altogether.  He was Mr MAD (Mean Angry Derek) Smith.  Mr Smith was the meanest man in the world (or so Adam and Sarah thought).  He was rather old and walked with a limp.  If you met him in the street he would snarl at you if you so much as dared to look at him.  He was always in a grumpy and foul mood and he never got on with any of the neighbours, who gave up trying to a very long time ago.

  The houses and gardens on Adam’s street were very pretty and well kept all except, yes you’ve guessed it, Mr Smith’s.  His house looked more like a prison.  The front garden had a tall fence going around it which was topped with barbed wire.  

From what you could see in the gaps of the fence was that the garden was overgrown with weeds.  All the other houses had small neat fences or hedges.  Mum always laughed and said he was trying to keep out burglars but Adam thought he was trying to keep something from escaping.  The back garden was even worse.  You couldn’t see past the wall of conifer trees which reached high into the sky.  It was impossible to see inside Mr Smith’s garden even from the upstairs windows.

  Now Adam loved to play football like most other boys.  But this sometimes got him into a lot of trouble.  Once he kicked the ball into a neighbour’s greenhouse and it took him a whole month’s pocket money to pay for it.  And then he had kicked his favourite football into Mr Smith’s front garden and never saw it again.  He didn’t have the courage to go and ask for it and when he sent his Dad to collect it Mr Smith said he hadn’t seen it.  If losing his favourite ball wasn’t bad enough his Mum refused to buy him another one and so he had to save his pocket money all over again for another one.  His sister couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about as she hated football.

  One hot, sunny Friday evening when Adam was kicking his ball around he got a bit carried away and kicked it so high he thought it would never come down to Earth again.  But it did come down.  However, it came down in someone else’s garden.  

  Sarah came running outside.  “Oh, you’re in for it now!  Guess whose garden your ball landed in?  I saw it all from my bedroom window.”

  “Please tell me it didn’t land in Mr Smith’s garden,” Adam said with a groan.

  “Correct.  Aren’t you a clever boy?  He’ll never give your ball back.  Remember what happened last time?” said Sarah.

  “Yes, that’s why I’ll have to go and get it myself,” said Adam, as he opened the gate and made his way next door.