by Letty B

Created on: August 27, 2008   Last Updated: September 21, 2008

It was a breezy day and the rain had just begun to fall. I was indoors snug when I could hear shouting through the walls of my mid terraced house. It seemed my next-door neighbor Pat was rowing with her daughter Mel again.

I tried not to listen but I didn't really have much choice due to the volume. Suddenly it went silent. I heard the front door slam and saw Mel stomping off down the road away from the house.

I was about to return again to enjoying the quiet of the afternoon, when I heard shouting this time from the back of the house. It seemed to be coming from outside. I went into my garden and heard my neighbor calling out to her daughter 'Mel, Mel' she yelled.

'Pat' I called over the fence.
'Mel has gone out.'

Pats voice trembled with fury and fear as she told me that her daughter had locked her and her 2 yr old grandson out of the house. The two year old had already fallen foul of the garden pond and was wet through and neither had coats. They were trapped in the garden surrounded by six-foot fences with no means of escape and the rain had started to fall.

I went into the house to grab a mobile phone to hurl over to her so she could call for emergency help. Her other daughter had a spare set of keys and would need to leave work to let them back them back into the house. But there was no telling how long that would take. I was worried about the wet two year old, standing shivering and frightened in the cold rain.

I stood on my garden bench and peered over the fence at Pat.

'Can we pass him over the fence and then you climb over?' I asked, though it was really asking the impossible.

We both looked around to see how else they might escape. There did not appear to be anyway they could safely climb out.

I went inside again to wake my sleeping husband this time, from his late afternoon nap. He wasn't happy to be woken to the news of neighborhood trauma. He was grumpy at the best of times but when woken from a comfortable sleep more so. But he did have a plan.

The fence panels between the two houses could be raised between the concrete poles, kind of like a sliding window. So with our combined efforts, him and I one side and Pat the other, we managed to lift up the fence panel. Pat was able to clamber under it with the frightened two year old in tow. A few plants were crushed in the process but damage was minimal.

We all went inside. My husband returned to his nap while Pat and I then waited for her spare set of keys to arrive, which they did some 2hrs later. The two year old was taken out of his wet clothes, dried and comforted with a drink and biscuits.

It was a very sad day for Pat, being locked outside in the rain with her grandson by her own daughter. I am only grateful I was on hand to help.

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