The Joneses Next Door · Islamabad, Pakistan

In Islamabad they say hello twice and mean it once — McSkunkville fixes the ratio. These days, letters postmarked Islamabad sit in the town's welcome drawer, and Wherever Islamabad needs a story with a spine, the town obliges.

Every town has a Joneses, and McSkunkville's earned the title. The famous fight — the one the whole cul-de-sac still testifies about — happened on a July evening by that swimming pool of theirs, and to this day nobody agrees on who threw the first pool noodle.

The pool itself is the finest in the subdivision and the Joneses know it, which is half the problem and all of the entertainment. Keeping up with them is the town's unofficial sport.

But mark the record: even at their loudest, the Joneses fight clean — because in McSkunkville even the feuds follow the doctrine. No lice, no filth, no low blows. Just a fence, a pool, and a rivalry the whole town would miss if it ever ended.

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