Kenopsia

My relationship with the neighbours is impossibly complex. I suspect that I have inadvertently been sucked into a vortex that is a toxic mix of adoration, domination, expectation, responsibility, mind-games & guilt.
On Friday we went to say goodbye, wish them a bon voyage and provide them with a price for a dishwasher which exactly fits the hole left by its predecessor and includes delivery and installation costs. B responded with a reminder that A was very difficult to get up in the morning and that he still fancied another two weeks holiday right here. It wasn't a threat as such, that's not how mind-games are played, this was more subtle and passive. We have the power to disappoint you.
I didn't sleep well. I heard the early boat arrive and leave and I needed to know if they were on board or still resting at home. I could have run up the hill and looked through the windows but how bad would that have been if they were still indoors?
So I phoned their taxi driver.
“Did they make the boat?”
“Yes”
Then I felt safe to visit their house and feel their absence for myself. When I arrived a cleaning person I do not know was already finishing up, it was as though they had never been here, it was only 9am.

I am glad that they made it to the boat on time. Glad that they will have assistance all the way home. Glad that their house is being taken good care of. But I still feel a hole, an absence - just like the cushions missing from these chairs, unused all Summer and now put away in what feels like disrespectful haste.

With grateful thanks to Gitama for introducing me to this;
Kenopsia:The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.
From: The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows; a website and YouTube channel, created by John Koenig, that defines neologisms for emotions that do not have a descriptive term. ... The neologisms, while completely created by Koenig, are based on his research on etymologies and meanings of used prefixes, suffixes, and word roots.