the noise upstairs
Lisa Toboz
Somebody probably just dropped something. They were probably carrying something heavy, like a box full of something. I don’t know what was in the box, because it’s not like I can see through the ceiling. Maybe it was a box full of grapefruit, or perhaps bowling balls. Something heavy. Would a box full of grapefruit be heavy? Not as heavy as a box full of bowling balls, that’s for sure. And why would anyone carry a box full of bowling balls anyway? That doesn’t make sense. But I’m sure that someone dropped something because it landed and made a loud noise: thud! And you know how when everything is quiet — the usual quiet, not dead silence, but the simple, ordinary sounds of life that are so regular you stop noticing them — and then something happens, some sound comes from upstairs, and suddenly you’re so alert, listening with your entire body, like even your pores are straining to hear? That’s how I know that whatever landed with a thud, whoever dropped it had to drag it across the floor. I could hear them dragging it, right over my head. And I could hear talking. Not yelling, just talking in normal voices, but they talked fast, and the pitch kept getting higher like whoever was talking was worried a little. And then I thought — this is so stupid — I thought, what if they’re dragging a body up there? But that’s crazy. Maybe they’re moving a couch. I don’t know. There’s something going on up there, but it’s probably no big deal. Somebody probably just dropped something.
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