Ephrem Endale Contributer
You are with your family and trying to wind down after a hard day in the office. Somehow all days in the office seem to be hard days! Are we too targets of directed-energy attacks! Someone or something must be messing with our brains. Directed-energy attacks! That’s scary.
Anyways you and your family are in the living room watching some serial drama which makes your wife cry and you laugh. If your marriage was to break up this’d be the only reason! Your next door neighbor who was watching football has upped the sound so high the entire family was hands over years.
You’ve to do something about it! The guy turns the area into some noisy nightclub and that can’t be tolerated. Your wife who already shed a few drops of tears doesn’t try to stop you. Not that you’re some brawler in search of a punch up or two. But she always warns him, “Don’t quarrel with any one; they might have some concealed weapons.”
Knock, knock, knock!
“Who is it?”
“It’s me.”
The door opens and a smiling neighbor faces you. Is high on something! You never saw him smile! And at that time of the night he’s all teeth! Something is cooking in that house.
“Good evening,” you mumble.
“What a surprise!” he looks at you like he’s peering through a partially open bedroom door. Ha! “Is everything alright?”
What? No everything is not alright you dude! His pounding music almost knocks down your gem of a fifty something inch TV off its stand and that is the best he can do! He tormented the ears of your entire family half the night digging out the mini-tigress in your spouse more than once and that’s the best he can do! Ask if everything is alright!
Look, it is baffling how some of us could be so inconsiderate in things that affect others. It’s as if we’ve the whole world for ourselves and could kick it around at our choosing. Still, you’ve to get the guy back to his senses. .
“The sound of your TV is disturbing us. It’s giving me headaches. Can you wind it down?”
“Loud! You mean this sound is loud?”
Time to forget about that ‘accommodating, nice neighbor’ game and stand your ground. “It’s so loud I wonder how other neighbors didn’t tell you so.”
“In fact, a couple of guys from upstairs and a lady from downstairs complained.”
“You should have turned it down then.
“I did! It is at about the seventy-something mark.” If you’ve your doubts about the guy being high on something you got your proof. Indeed he is high… high on stupidity.
You change gears. There’s no good arguing with a virtual moron who has a lot of belly and chin and no brains. What’s more, your wife warnings of the ‘concealed weapon’ echoes in his head which rather oddly begins to feel heavier.
“I’ve got a persistent ear problem When I hear loud voices my head almost bursts.”
“I didn’t know that. Ok…” Your neighbor’s human after all! He moves to the TV and ‘touches’ something and returns. “How about that!”
How about what? Your sanity is in your hands. Or you’ll end up a lot dumber that the fellow. One last try; “Can I go to the TV and do it myself?”
Bingo! Not that he steps aside to let you in. In fact it seems his whole self was somehow inflated! You, the sharpshooter, got him right between the eyes! The guy was angry! You even could swear you saw some sort of vapor coming out his nostrils.
The verdict is in, you’ve crossed the line. What he does next would have set of another world war had we been a few centuries back. Without any word he slams the door on f his your face, and just as you are settling in your sofa back home the sound is turned up to its peak! The mini-tigress in your spouse having come out earlier the tiger follows.
The poor family man was making a humble suggestion, sort of offering the helping hand. Of course the neighbor thought otherwise; as far as he is concerned it was a blow to his pride as it also was to his evening which hanged on Cloud Nine until than knock destroyed everything.
“I think the problem might be with your walls. You know some low-grade cement….” What’s this all about? He is talking about the same wall you two share!
The urge to knock the jaws of such a person must have a bitter sweet sensation. No, it’s not a researched fact; but it is probably some urge you feel during such annoying experiences. You see yourself throwing an IBM of a punch and the guy holding his jaw from falling off.
Perfect for that Stephen Segal guy movie where single handedly knocks down a hundred plus souls and ends up with not a single scratch! And at one time he was talking of going into politics! I Maybe it’s time that country got a Segal or an Undertaker for a politician. Since the mainstream media over there is about drama they’d get a lot of it!
So, to speak the truth some neighbors ought to be told to behave. Especially if you live in one of those condos you know what peace of mind really means.
The Ethiopian Herald April 25/2021