Eviction

They seemed pretty nice. I never actually spoke with any of them though. I wouldn’t have avoided speaking with them of course. It just never came up. Once a friend of a friend invited us to a party, judging by the address we thought it was at their house. It wasn’t unfortunately, but I’m sure their party’s were also fun. They seemed like our kind of people, or maybe the kind of people we wished we still were. A little bit younger, and on reflection probably a bit more free spirited than we ever were.

But my point is that they seemed nice, and I thought it was pretty off when I read the note that had been left in our letterbox. The note wasn’t from them but they were certainly the subject of the note, that was clear before I’d even looked at the street number that the note referred to. Apparently the management of their house had changed, these new people wanted to take the opportunity to drop their business card in the letterbox of all the neighbours. Oh, and by the way, if anyone had any complaints about the tenants in the big house on the corner, just let them know.

I thought the note was pretty harsh. I mean, well sure the chimney did get knocked off the top of the house. But I saw that happen out the window one afternoon, and it was definitely an accident. On top of that I’m sure there were some noise complaints but that kind of thing doesn’t hold much water with me. They certainly weren’t any louder than we were. And if our neighbours can deal with drum and bass at two AM, well then those same neighbours can put up with the noise from the big house on the corner as well.

The fire wasn’t, I don’t think, a very big deal either. From the safety of two doors down it seemed under control. Well enough control anyway. I suppose the landlord will have to rebuild that section of the veranda, but the place looks like it could do with a few repairs here and there anyway. Altogether it was really just an unfortunate run of unconnected events. I felt sorry for them on that morning that it all came to a head.

It was quite a cold morning, still and clear with almost the feeling of frost. It was unusually quiet on the street, fewer cars than normal, not a lot of activity on that winter’s morning. So the whop whop whop of the helicopter blades was a bit of a shock to us really. As we were getting out of bed to see what had happened we heard the first sirens. And by the time we got to the window and opened the curtains there must have been half a dozen police cars and vans stopped at the corner.

Most of the police were in riot gear. I initially thought one of them had some kind of rocket launcher but it turned out that it shot tear gas into the front window of the house on the corner. A loud hailer shouted instructions and several police dogs barked away. I was thinking that it was hands down the most excessive eviction I’d ever even hear of, let alone seen. It all just seemed over the top. But then the gunfire started. It wasn’t the police who were shooting, it was coming from inside the house.

These guys really didn’t want to move out. The skirmish grew into a battle, and before long it was fully-fledged war. There were grenades now, and more police than earlier. Some of them were in charge of keeping us off the streets. By this time the whole street had left their front doors ajar and wandered out to watch the eviction go down.

Hustled back into our house we could still see most of the action. A truck filled with what looked like soldiers was unloading itself from a short distance up the road. There was shouting, although the loud hailers had long since been abandoned. I’d seen several police officers shot, but most of the gunfire that kept ringing out through the neighbourhood seemed to be coming from outside the house rather than in. The danger to onlookers looked like it was mostly coming from the police. The shots from inside had a different sound. They were a little bit muffled and maybe a deeper sounding bang. Those shots were sparing, but when we heard them we usually saw a policeman keel over. Outnumbered, the people in the big house on the corner were certainly still in charge of the situation.

When the tank showed up I was a little bit concerned for them. It was probably a bit more than they could handle. I’d seen tanks before, at museums and that sort of thing. But when you see a fully functional one, in real life, and twitching for actions. Well it’s a little bit more real, especially when its barrel is pointed at the house two doors down from you.

As it turned out the tank didn’t see any action that day. It must have been slightly disappointed because when it turned up it had a strut about itself, a look like a boxer approaching the ring, but later on when everything was finished it almost limped off. Insomuch as a fully functional tank can limp.

It sulked off because it wasn’t needed. Before it got a chance to shine things came to a head. The sky split like a large piece of pine hit by an axe, a plane screeched towards us from somewhere in the south. This was the first time in the whole morning that I’d actually been scared for us, I had been a little bit scared for the people in the big house on the corner, and was definitely concerned for the police. But now the danger was coming our way.

I honestly don’t know how something travelling so fast can drop a bomb with so much accuracy. Oh, I know that they’re laser guided and all that sort of thing. But it’s just not real is it, it’s just TV science as far as your brain can process it at nine in the morning when a jet is dropping a bomb scarily close to your house.

It didn’t hit us. Obviously. In fact, despite all of my doubt it was a very accurate bomb. There wasn’t any question of survivors, the place was flattened. The soldiers still threw a few grenades in to be sure, and more than one or two rounds were spent in the interest of being certain, although it all seemed half hearted after the battle that had been echoing across Grey Lynn earlier. Now it was just the smell of smoke and the distant sound of ambulances racing to help the injured policemen. I guess now the landlords will need to do more than fix up that burned piece of veranda.