Lejla grew up hearing that one did not speak to the people across the fence. Supposedly their grandfather moved a boundary stone, cut someone else's branch, and never returned borrowed ladders. When she took over the small house after her mother's death, she was forty-three and had many reasons not to maintain another old obligation. Nevertheless, on the first day she merely nodded briefly to the man in the neighboring yard.
The man was named Vedad. He inherited the house from an aunt who explained that the family on the other side had not returned her jars and that their grandfather moved the stone first. Vedad listened to these instructions alongside the explanation of where to turn off the water. He remembered the water. Regarding the rest, he was unsure what he should do about people he barely knew.
A pear tree grew beside the fence. Half its crown hung above Lejla's yard, and fruit fell on both sides. One morning Vedad heard her trying to chase wasps away from a full bucket. He offered an empty container with a lid. She accepted, then warned him she would return it to avoid starting another family war. He laughed loudly enough for a neighbor two houses away to hear.
Soon they began drinking coffee on the steps. They discovered both lived alone and neither wanted to turn the inherited house into a museum of their parents. On her first visit, Lejla's aunt noticed the unfamiliar container in the kitchen. She looked across the fence and immediately said Lejla needed to be careful. Lejla asked exactly what she should fear now that everyone in the ladder story had long been dead.
She received no answer that explained Vedad. She received another version of the old quarrel. That evening she told him everything, and he described his aunt's warning that Lejla was probably very calculating. They tried seriously comparing the accusations but ended up laughing over a plate of hard pears. Vedad kissed her when she took the last piece, without any connection to ownership of the branch.
The following spring they repaired the fence. They did not demolish it for a romantic image. Each liked their own yard and closed the gate when wanting peace. They did, however, add a little gate between the houses, agreed without discussion of grandfathers. The aunts interpreted it differently. Lejla learned to live with that. Sometimes Vedad came through the gate in the morning carrying coffee, and sometimes only a cat passed through, respecting neither side of the family.