Ninja Mom

So, we’d gotten over the initial hurdle in our new neighborhood.

The trash spot, per the sempai’s request was now on the back corner of our corner house.

We’d managed to subvert the system by rushing our trash directly to the trash men, who more often than not, remember to wave to my toddler. It’s actually a nice set-up, except that we have to be paying attention.

For my part, I try to stay out of the trash games… a decision I made that early morning with tissues and wipes and diapers being pulled out the trash bags.

Nuuuuhhhhh-uh. No thank you.

Still, one night I rounded the corner to find sempai and her faithful friend attaching the official city trash sign to our fence down the street, and a group of neighbors gathered a few houses closer chatting among themselves.

They’re not part of our trash group, though they live across the street from us.

Apparently they used to be, but not anymore. The group had split because they were too big.

Or so sempai told me.

Well, one lady, I’ll call her Lady H, approached me on my bike and I slowed to a stop, keeping an eye on our new sign being put up.

In a whisper, she said to me, “Hey, we think you’re doing a great job throwing away your trash. If you have any problems, you can come over to our group.”

I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I sensed drama.

Well, I tiptoed through the conversation without implicating anyone or anything. That night, my husband and I discussed it almost as if it were the newest gossip in town. “You’ll never believe what she told me!” The whole topic faded away over the winter with no further whisperings.

This spring, again I was accosted by Lady H on my way home from grocery shopping.

There was talk of the group coming back together due to some issue I couldn’t really put my finger on. But they wanted to change the trash spot to our opposite corner.

I was like hey- “I don’t really see a problem…. but….. my husband’s in charge here. He’ll be home soon!”

I’m so helpful.

From inside, I heard them rope my husband into conversation when he rounded the corner and was surprised when, a half hour later, they were still talking.

Vicente came in and he said, “Dude, she cried.”

Apparently, there has been a lot of drama around here. Lady H is one of the newer ladies to the neighborhood, having only moved here a few years ago.

And apparently sempai has given her some real problems and public scoldings about her trash. Sempai is a no-nonsense kinda lady. I like her, but I also don’t want to cross her.

I wasn’t privy to the details, but even in recounting it, this was a big deal for Lady H.

I felt for her.

Having your trash aired out is no small deal.

At any rate, it seems like we newbies are the crux of the situation. If we can agree to it, it might be through us that the group comes back together. We mentioned that if possible, we prefer where we currently have the trash, but we have no problem to have the group together and for our place to be the trash spot.

But hey, if we can bring peace to the neighborhood by hosting the trash, so be it.

You know, trash is a big deal.

But I never imagined, when I moved here, that trash would be the deal of the neighborhood.