00:00This was about ten years ago. I was still in the military back then, disciplined, grounded,
00:16but definitely not someone to cross. I also happened to be a trained EMT, which meant
00:22my home was stocked with medical supplies. I had a trauma bag. Bandages. Gauze.
00:30Saline. The whole kit. Back then, I lived in a quiet suburban
00:35neighborhood in a stand-alone house. Nice enough place. Big yard, decent trees, quiet
00:42street, except for the guy next door. Let's call him Greg.
00:47And Greg? Greg was a monster in khakis. From the moment I moved in, something about
00:53that house didn't sit right. Late at night, you'd hear yelling. Loud.
00:59Like you could hear it through closed windows and across the driveway loud. And then, you'd
01:04hear her crying. His wife, small, polite, soft-spoken. We'll call her Marie. Sweet woman. But something
01:14in her eyes always looked tired. Like she was constantly one argument away from flinching.
01:20I'd called the cops more than once. Domestic violence, clearly. But every time? Nothing
01:28came of it. Just a visit. A shrug. Then the yelling continued the next night.
01:35Apparently, Greg was a local mortician. Knew a bunch of cops. Ran in those circles. So the
01:43reports? They disappeared like bodies into his prep room.
01:48Then one day, Marie knocked on my door. She had a busted lip. A deep purple bruise wrapping
01:55around her upper arm. And a gash on her calf, still bleeding through her leggings.
02:01You need help, I told her. And she just nodded. That night, I let her crash
02:06on my couch. Cleaned up her cuts, patched the leg wound, and told her she didn't have to
02:12go back if she didn't want to. But she insisted. He'll come looking if I stay gone. That wasn't
02:19the last time. Over the following months, she'd come over every few weeks, new bruises, new
02:26excuses. Always scared. Always sure that if she went to the cops, it'd backfire. And honestly?
02:35She wasn't wrong. Greg had friends in all the wrong places.
02:39But apparently, helping her pissed him off. Because one day.
02:45Greg decided to fight dirty. He filed a police report, said I threatened him
02:49with a gun. And next thing I know, a sheriff's deputy shows
02:53up at my door with a restraining order and a thinly veiled smirk.
02:57You need to vacate within the week. My blood boiled.
03:02I hadn't even owned a gun for a month, I sold mine. Legally. To a cop. Turns out, that
03:09was the break I needed. My girlfriend at the time was friends with a local social worker,
03:15who was dating the very cop I sold the pistol to. You want to talk about timing? Turning
03:21point is that. I called him up. Explained everything. He asked for a photo of the gun, the one Greg said
03:29that I threatened him with. I sent it over. And then he did something genius. He printed
03:35out a photo of the gun, taped a ruler next to it like it was police evidence, and walked
03:40right up to Greg's house. Is this the gun he pointed at you? he asked.
03:46Greg nodded. Yep. That's the one. Are you sure this was the date?
03:51Absolutely, Greg said. Great, the officer replied, pulling out a citation.
03:58Because this gun was sold to me a month before that day. Which means you just filed a false
04:04police report. Boom. Restraining order? Voided. Ticket? Issued. And Greg? Oh, he was pissed.
04:17Last time I was outside? He muttered threats loud enough for me to hear. Nothing he could
04:22be arrested for, but enough to let me know he was fuming. But I wasn't scared anymore.
04:28Because that's when I realized something. I wasn't staying in that town. My time in the
04:34Air Force was up. I had my discharge papers and a ticket home. I was packing anyway. So
04:41if Greg wanted a fight. He was about to get a war he'd never see coming. I waited until
04:47my last week there. And then? I bought one simple thing. A stalk of bamboo. Now if you
04:55know anything about bamboo, you know this, it's damn near impossible to get rid of once it's
05:00taken root. It spreads underground. Invades your yard like a virus. And unless you're willing
05:07to dig up half your property and burn the roots, you're stuck with it.
05:12So I took that bamboo stalk, cut it into dozens of four-inch segments, and used a rubber mallet
05:17to drive them randomly across Greg's backyard. No pattern. No symmetry. Just chaos. Each one,
05:26a future headache. Each one, a small, silent screw you. But I wasn't done. Marie? I convinced
05:35her to let me drive her to a women's shelter three towns over. Gave her everything she needed
05:40to start fresh. Contacts. Documents. Advice. And a safe place to sleep. I watched her disappear
05:50into safety. And I smiled. Because for once, I knew Greg wasn't getting away with it.
06:05Now again. See you tonight. See you tomorrow.
06:1430 days happen.
06:1630 days.
06:2030 days.
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