Snowballed on Way to Work

When Julia and I left the house this morning, a woman new to the building next door walked past and unleashed on us a venomous torrent of curses and insults. We waited for her to walk a half a block ahead and then followed behind her. She cursed the entire time but eventually she turned left and disappeared from sight. After Julia and I parted ways on College I ran into the neighbour again. The cussing continued and much to my surprise it became physical. The neighbour hurled snowballs and even kicked my foot as I walked away!

Now some background to make it interesting… About a week ago, I remember leaving the house to go to work. Departing her front door at the same time was this new tenant from the neighbouring building. As we both approached our own gates, I coughed. When we passed each other on the sidewalk, she faced me and coughed repeatedly as if I had coughed directly in her face.

For the rest of the day I replayed this scene in my mind and to my colleagues. “Did I imagine coughing an entire house away or is she just disturbed?”.

So this morning, as we emerged through our front door I noticed that the neighbour was walking past. She did not notice us, and oddly coughed unprovoked. Very funny. So to catch her attention I coughed from my front porch. She looked up and that’s when the cursing began. During our second encounter which became physical she actually said “I know where you live.”

So in short, what should I do? I would say something to her landlord, but honestly she doesn’t come across as a stable person either. She is a senior that dresses and sounded like a 6 year-old scouring the streets for garbage which she then displays on her front lawn. I think the two of them might even be related.

And the larger question is: why does Toronto have more mentally disturbed people walking the streets than any other city I have lived in, or even visited? If the ambitious move to New York, do the ones that need to silence the voices of their heads move to Toronto? If they are, it ain’t working.