At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉
I'm back in my bedroom (yay!) after the deluge. It's not quite put all back together, though. There's still a big hole in my ceiling.
The contractors should come in about a week to replaster. Until then, there's a plastic tarp over the guts of my ceiling and the bottom of the upstairs' floor.
This means no insulation and no muting of the sounds coming from the bathroom above me. Which is what inspired today's question...
What if suddenly and inexplicably you could hear everything coming from one room in your neighbor's house from tomorrow?
(I'm specifying a day in the question, but feel free to change the timing. The point is: what you're overhearing is not happening right now. Because I rewrote this question using tomorrow, yesterday, three years ago, and two years in the future, and I couldn't decide which timing was better.)
I'm not sure I would care what was going on in my neighbor's house whether it was the past, present, or future. I'd still go about minding my own business.
ReplyDeleteBut what if something interesting happened? Say, a murder. Or... perhaps you overheard the lottery numbers...
DeleteHi Liz - I suspect I'd be half listening and wouldn't pick up the important bit of the conversation; if they were having a really bad row - I guess I'd be aware ... not sure if I'd do anything ... but would hope my insulation would be put back earlier! Good luck - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteIt would probably be the same squawking I hear from their back yard every single day...
ReplyDeleteAs long as it didn't involve violence or evil, I would probably ignore it. If it did involve violence or evil, then I would have to try to find a way to intervene somehow.
ReplyDeletebetty
I think I read a story about something similar once. Now I wish I could remember more about it because it was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteOh I don't think I'd like that at all. My neighbors on both sides of me are very strange people. Who knows what they are into.
ReplyDeleteYou know what I am going to say because I am so predictable. I remember a story on this theme, but this time I can't remember the title, or the author, or even the plot. So it's open season. I would be pretty spooked and I'm not about to write the story. Maybe you could write this story, Liz! If you make a fortune, cut me in?
ReplyDeleteI would like to read that story, if you recall what it was. I imagine it would be kind of freaky.
DeleteWhen I lived in an apartment, I often heard my neighbours be rabbits so it wouldn’t matter what day or night or what time, it was always a big yawn.
ReplyDeleteAlmost as bad as hearing someone else's bathroom...
DeleteEspecially if they were rabbits IN the bathroom.
DeleteWell, how I felt about that would depend on just how juicy it was! haha....JUST KIDDING. I like my home to be quiet, I don't like knowing the private life of my neighbors. HOWEVER, I have lived through this. Living in a zero lot line I had an issue with my neighbor turning up music really loud, opening her front door and sitting out in a chair in her drive way. Have no issues with that until I can't hear my tv!
ReplyDeleteI think we've all had those situations at one time or another. That's why I added the in the future aspect for the question.
DeleteI'd go utterly insane in this type of reality. ~grin~ In fact, I could neither sleep in your case nor use my bathroom in the event of living above you. ~shudders~ I hope this gets resolved once and for all very soon.
ReplyDeleteAh, but you wouldn't know. At least, I'm pretty sure the guy above me has no clue. If he did... Well, if he wasn't oblivious, we wouldn't have had the water issue in the first place.
DeleteThis is a great premise for a story! We love our neighbors, but there is a lot of drama there. I don't think overhearing them would be good at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you see the potential. Alas, it seems it has been done somewhere. But I'm sure there aren't too many iterations of the story.
DeleteWe once lived next door to neighbors whose drama came through the heater vent. It was so annoying. Hearing them talking in the future would've just been that. Annoying.
ReplyDelete