She tried to protest, but I didn’t give her room. I wrapped her in blankets, guided her carefully down the steps, held her elbow the entire way while she winced and tried to pretend she wasn’t in pain. I got her into my car, turned the heater on full blast, and made sure she was safe.
Then I started making calls.
“Ma’am,” the guy said, uncertain, “that’s a lot of snow.”
“I know,” I said. “Charge me.”
Next, I called the city and reported an unsafe situation: an injured resident being forced to do physical labor in hazardous conditions. I gave them my mother’s name, her doctor’s name, and sent photos—her cast, the untouched snow in the driveway, the cleaning setup inside the house. Documentation matters. Abusers thrive on “no proof.”
Then I called my mom’s physician’s office and asked for a nurse visit, not for drama—for records. For someone neutral to see her condition and note what she’d been doing.
Within an hour, it was happening.
A massive truck rolled up with plows and pushers and salt spreaders. The crew didn’t just clear the snow. They moved it.
They piled it high on the edges of the property like the world’s pettiest glacier. They buried the driveway. Blocked the garage. Shoved packed snow against the porch steps and ground-floor windows until the house looked like it had been swallowed.
A frozen fortress.
Not long after, I heard tires crunching on slush. Dennis’s old gray pickup crept up the street. The second he saw the snow wall, he slammed the brakes and just sat there, staring.
Then he got out and started shouting like a man whose toy had been taken away.
“What is this? What happened to my house?”
I leaned against my car, calm on the outside, burning on the inside. My mom sat bundled in the passenger seat, quiet, watching.
Dennis stomped forward, slipped twice, caught himself, and kept going.
“Who did this?” he yelled. “Call the police!”
“You might want to pause before you do,” I said, stepping into view.
Before he could finish, two city vehicles turned the corner and parked behind his truck. An inspector stepped out with a folder. A woman with a clipboard followed. And then a black SUV rolled up and stopped.
Kylie. Continue reading…