To the woman downstairs, in reply to your note asking us to clean up the stairs

[devi]

It occurs to me that, though we live separated by a single thin floor, I and my housemates know very little about you. You know quite a bit about us, since the day soon after we moved in when you appeared with a checklist of questions - “have they always lived together?”, “who is their estate agent?”, “how long do they plan to stay?”, “what do they all do for a living?” and many more - and worked your way through them, ticking them off carefully as you went. But there’s an imbalance here - you’re still a mystery, and in the spirit of neighbourliness we’d like to ask a few questions of you.

- Do you ever have a conversation with anyone which isn’t made up of complaining?

- Aside from noise, building insurance, dust, being extremely punctual at all times and putting notes under your neighbours’ doors, what are you passionate about?

- When you’re drifting off to sleep at ten o’clock in your little narrow bed, what thoughts pass through your mind - that is, apart from rage at us because we’re walking around and watching TV? You’ve already told us about that.

- When we moved in, how many nights of sleep did you lose over the one-inch scratch our bookcase made on the beautiful 1970s woodchip wallpaper?

- Will you ever forgive the man who let his bath overflow through your ceiling eight years ago?

- How long has it been since you felt joy?

- Do you remember what the word means? Take your time.

- If you’ve remembered, and you’d like to tell us about your last truly joyful moment, could you try to make it one which didn’t involve earplugs, scouring pads, Dysons or Windolene?

No? Oh well.

Kind regards,
Your neighbours in Flat D.

Comments

[inskauldrak.livejournal.com]

Yeuch!

The thing is, if she's like that, it may be because of a mixture of bad experiences (for instance, how did bath-flood-bloke respond to flooding her) and loneliness.

That said, given you lot are nice people, it does seem a bit off (to say the least) that she's so on edge at you.

But on the other hand... if she's only capable of communicating via letters under your door, there's clearly something deep down that's making her afraid; not of you lot in particular, but of actual confrontation or deconstruction of her own little world-view.

By the way, I remember hearing a comment about Joyce that went that good writing doesn't need punctuation or at least very little. I tend to use far too much and have actually descended into over-use of brackets
- can you and verlaine help? ; )

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

given you lot are nice people, it does seem a bit off (to say the least) that she's so on edge at you

Thing is, she's been like that since before she even saw us - the first communication we ever had from her was just after moving in, when I left a note saying 'we've left this bookcase in the hall for a few hours while we decide whether or not to chuck it, sorry for the inconvenience' and she replied 'don't slam the door, and don't scratch the walls'.

It did have a little smiley face on it, which looked rather intimidated by the rest of the note.

But yes, I do suspect she's very lonely.