There once was a small, affluent neighborhood, respected throughout America for its hospitality, patriotism, and tradition. Grandmas and grandpas who grew up as neighbors kindly greeted each other while children safely played together in the streets. Families knew each other, prayed together, and always had an extra baking sheet to lend to a neighbor in need.
One day, a strange, little girl rented a house next to the Church, and sure enough, everyone in town soon heard of her. Who was she? What was she doing all alone? How could she afford that house? Why did she come here? She dressed in pajamas and KKK robes, and she never appeared quite together. While her hair and skin were beautiful, she gave off a fetid smell; and although she was always courteous, she barely spoke English. She didn't seem to really care about her neighbors and never spent more than five minutes talking to anyone. No one in town could understand her, but they tried to be warm and amiable toward her anyway.
This girl, named Khrgrthja or Shfvtiqla (no one could pronounce her foreign name), refused the neighbors' invitations to tea or dinner. Every so often, she accepted an invite, but she never returned the favor. Sometimes, she would just disappear from town for a week or two. No one knew where she went or if she'd be back.
There were a few homes that the girl actually visited routinely, like the one Hispanic family in this WASP town or the widowed old lady, Mary, who lived alone. Although amused by her endearing company, these neighbors still could not fully understand her. They gathered that she could comprehend their English, but she had a harder time speaking it. Even after a year in town, the girl's language improvements were small. She seemed harmless, well-intentioned, and perhaps a bit retarded; and they told all the neighbors that. Once, the girl told Mary she was going to visit Russia (of all places!), and Mary jokingly asked her to bring back some caviar. A month later, the girl gave her some cucumbers.
Little by little, the girl started acting weirdly. She started keeping her door open, releasing foul kitchen smells. She played her loud, strange music during neighborhood block parties and funeral wakes. She threw rubbish and old bathroom water out on the street. Sometimes, she actually aimed to splash the innocent children playing near her.
Drug addicts and mentally unstable people living on society's fringe started passing through town more. They seemed enthralled by the new girl. Some mornings, neighbors noticed that the girl left beer bottles and scraps of food on her doorstep. Fortunately, a good Samaritan neighbor would discretely discard the rubbish in hopes that the children didn't notice it. If anything, the community prided itself on how well the children were raised, and the community would not allow this girl to demoralize them.
Yet, she started yelling at the children, as if the children were to blame for the beer bottles. These poor kids would run home crying. She even approached parents to accuse them of raising liars and imbeciles.
One mother had enough of the crazy girl's disrespectful behavior and reprimanded her. She yelled that the girl was actually the liar and idiot, and she should leave the neighborhood in peace. Neighbors restrained the woman from rebuking the girl further, reminding her of the town's good values and God's graces. The menfolk actually apologized to the girl for the woman's behavior, to the outrage of all the women. Regardless, all neighbors sensed that the once-close-knit community was no longer the same after the weird girl arrived.
