Building

This is in response to Home Is a Shifty Notion.

Last night I sat down on my bed in my apartment to do some reading, and I heard some music playing very faintly. It sounded like it was coming from outside, in my building’s courtyard, and it also sounded like a cappella music. I was almost able to make out the last shimmering chords of Biebl’s “Ave Maria”, after which it went into something more contemporary. I couldn’t hear the lyrics and I couldn’t make out the tune.

It's hard to underline how important that was, but I'll try: I fucking love a cappella music. I’ve loved it since middle school, and it used to be a huge part of my life. I’d sung in groups and attended concerts and all that bullshit. I left most of it behind when I moved to Portland years ago.

So when I heard it here in my New York City apartment building I opened my window to find out where it was coming from, and the music didn’t get any clearer. That’s when I realized it was coming through the wall from the building shoved up next to mine.

I’ve heard the person on the other side of the wall every now and then, just barely. Muffled thumps and the like. But then last night I heard their music that just happened to be music I love, and I imagined this person’s soul as it were, sharing a wall with mine. I imagined this person as a future friend/lover, I imagined this person’s quiet kitchen warming a quiet meal. I didn’t imagine this person as male or female, like I often do, I imagined this person as a person. I imagined the two of us in cutaway pictures of apartments where everyone lives together but everyone lives alone. I imagined the two of us knocking on walls to communicate. I imagined playing an a cappella song of my own as a signal back to this person. I imagined us being at least something like neighbors. I imagined us progressing, building towards home.

I would’ve imagined more, but that’s when I realized I had left my iPod on and the music was coming from the headphones on my dresser.

I looked outside my third floor window again, and I saw the walls of the courtyard stretching too high and dark to see where the building ended and the night sky began.

I later imagined a big glass of milk and an episode of Scrubs.