Like a Good Neighbor

Our neighbor is employed by the government and recently applied for a position that requires a higher level of security than he previously had and told us that someone in an official capacity might come around to ask questions about his character.  It wouldn’t have mattered if he’d given us any notification or not — I can’t think of a better neighbor that we’ve had in the numerous places we’ve lived and I would have professed that without being given warning.  This young man and his wife are wonderful and we feel really lucky to have them living next door.  The man is helpful and friendly in every way imaginable and is pretty much the epitome of the words ‘good neighbor’.  So when a government agent came by last week to pay us a visit here at home, I was able to unequivocally say nothing but nice things about the man in question.  In fact, this neighbor is so helpful that I wondered aloud if perhaps my husband and I at times might seem a little incompetent to him.  I speculated about the possibility that our neighbor might regard us as the nice, older couple next door.  Whereupon the agent, who was my husband’s age himself, replied with twinkling eyes and a smile, “Honey, you are the nice older couple next door.  Get over it.”  Not exactly the answer I was hoping for.