by Mugurel Stejar

Created on: July 27, 2008

"Are you sleeping, wake up!"
I did not hear her at first, but she made sure that I did by shaking me till I opened my eyes. I look at the clock on my night stand. It showed two in the morning.
"OK, I am awake, what happened?"
"Listen she said"

At first I did not hear anything, except of an occasional car driving by. At two in the morning, there is not too much traffic on Prospect. However due to the building delineating the the street, even a walk on high heels on the side walk would get a different resonance due to the echo generated. But, there was nothing that I could hear...

Not at first, but waking up more, I heard some noises coming from the next door apartment.

The building was called Prospect Hights and it had one bed rooms on several stories, covering a patch of land from the street all the way to the bluff with a superb view of the lake. When we rented the room, we were not looking for a lake view, we just wanted a little, affordable apartment. We were new in the country, and one hundred ninety five dollars a month was not what one may define as "cheap" for us.

When we first saw it, it looked impressive, and judging by our European cultural background, we assumed it to be a solid construction, which would satisfy our temporary needs. At that time we did not know that the floors were divided in apartments by two by fours and dry wall. We thought that the constructors used prefab walls and the apartments were quite sound proofed.

Being so abruptly awaken in the middle of the night, I felt the need of something to drink and by the time I cam back to bed, I was totally awaken.

Then I heard some very heavy breathing next door. In an apartment building, very seldom one meets the neighbors, and even if one does, the relationship does not go beyond "hello" and a smile. So we did not know who the person next door was, except that she was a single female in her thirties. She was a blond. One of those blonds who is tinting the roots of her hair in black living the rest of it in its natural blond color....

"I think she is in pain" my wife said.

Here and there the heavy breading was followed by a little scream.

"She must be", I replied.

"She is probably alone and she needs help" my wife insisted.

"I think that we should go back to sleep, I will have a full day tomorrow" I said.

"You can't be serious, we have to help, she is in pains. We should call the Fire Department".

"Why would you call the Fire Department for"?

"Remember what they told us when we placed the emergency call

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