Disturbed

Yesterday, Claire and I were eating lunch and all of a sudden, we both heard this insanely loud yelling. It sounded like it was coming from the backyard. I quickly looked out the glass sliding door at the deck, and I didn’t see anyone.

I then peeked out the kitchen window into the neighbors’ yard. They have a dog, and at first, I thought someone was in their backyard yelling at her. But, this yelling sounded like a person was the recipient…there was just something about the tone that was very unsettling. The voice was so loud and jarring that it actually frightened me. I made a mental note of where the phone was, just in case…

Claire looked very concerned, and I tried to appear calm. “Wow. That man sounds angry, doesn’t he? He must be really mad. Do you hear him yelling?” She told me she did. “Sometimes people yell when they’re angry. Maybe he’ll stop soon. Here, eat some more of your applesauce,” I said, nudging the bowl on the tray of her highchair.

I kept looking out the window to try to figure out where he was, and more importantly, if he was going to get any closer to us. My brain was falling all over itself trying to figure out what was happening. The voice kept getting closer, and that’s when I realized that the man yelling was on the outside of our back fence.

Our backyard juts up to a relatively major street. We are protected from the street by a guardrail, sidewalk and our really tall fence. The man was walking along the sidewalk. As he paced back and forth, I could get glimpses of his shape between the fence slats. He was gesturing wildly with his arms and kept yelling. I only saw one person. Was he yelling at someone on the phone? Was he yelling at someone in his head?

After several minutes, he finally walked on, continuing his conversation. I could still hear bits and pieces as he got farther away, and then it was silent. Claire and I were left with an eerie calmness, and I was left with an odd feeling that I couldn’t shake most of the day.

I’ve tumbled the scene over and over in my head and the only words I could piece together were little insignificant words like ‘you’ and ‘the’ and ‘and.’ I didn’t catch any swear words or any specific words at all. The conversation he was having was so explosive and violent, but I have no idea what he was actually saying. It was like watching a foreign film without the subtitles. The exact words were a blur, but the emotion was loud and clear. Disturbed…that man and our peaceful lunch.

–
The Casual Perfectionist
writes here.