Sounds of Silence
For Jen, who was having a lousy Wednesday.
From the outside, it looked like a normal summer scene. Katy and Sandy sat on the couch in Sandy’s living room watching TV with the front door wide open.
From the outside come the sounds of children playing...
Children laughing...Children screaming...
Children riding their bikes up and down the street...
Cars honking at children who won’t ride their bikes out of the middle of the street...
Children fighting...
Children blaring their radios...
“...where the f***’s my B**** at? Yo, yo, where’s my B**** at? I’m gonna slap that h* and...”
CRASH!
Children accidentally shattering car windows...
Sandy dropped her head into her hands.
Katy winced. “How old are they?”
“Sixteen, thirteen, ten and seven.”
“Why doesn’t their mother shut them up? It’s like ten thirty!”
“They don’t go to bed. Ever.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“Damn. My mother would have had my head...”
Sandy looked up at Katy with a hunted look. “Have you SEEN their mother?! She’s worse than they are! Last week she stood in the front yard swearing at some guy at the top of her lungs! And the little ones helped!” She buried her head back in her hands. “It’s been like this all summer...”
Katy patted Sandy’s shoulder.
“I mean, I *like* kids, even! I get along with them great! You know that!”
Katy nodded.
“But these little monsters...” Sandy’s voice dripped with venom. “All I want is for them to shut up. Just...shut up. Be quiet. Make no noise. GO AWAY!” she shouted.
“Ssssssh!” Katy couldn’t help giggling.
“No, I mean it! I want them to go away! They’re turning me into my grandmother.” She looked at Katy, cocking an eyebrow. “I,” she archly informed her, “am only twenty-two. I should not be acting like a cranky eighty-year-old.”
Katy grinned at her. “I see.” Getting up, she wandered over to the screen door and looked out. The little monkeys were crawling all over everything- trampling old Miz Parker’s petunias, lighting M-60s over by the lamp post, and nervously peering at the gaping hole in the windshield of Mr. Lewis’s new car. Oh dear.
“...and I gots b****** who won’t get off my d***...”
The radio, Katy decided. If she got rid of the radio, then maybe they’d... evaporate. Pushing open the screen she leaned out and surreptitiously waggled a finger at the radio.
It exploded with an ear-piercing squawk. The seven-year-old shrieked and ran into the house bawling. The other children stared at it dumbfounded.
But they were quiet, Katy noted with satisfaction.
Sandy ran over to the door and looked out. “What did you DO?” she asked in a somewhat awed voice.
“I redirected the electricity in the radio. It didn’t like it. Oops.”
“Oops.”
The pair returned to the couch and settled in.
Five minutes later a car screeched to a stop in front of the house next door and laid on the horn. Giggling, taunting children’s voices drifted through the air.
Sandy sighed.
Katy groaned.
“Hey, why don’t you have a shot at the Christmas lights they still have up. They’ve been bugging me too...”
-fin-
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