I Hear You

            Have you ever caught yourself listening to someone else’s conversation? You don’t mean to, it just happens. Maybe those people involved are intense, or loud, or right behind you so it’s hard not to notice. Or maybe those conversations happened under your window at some unearthly hour of the morning. Just sayin. It could happen. Trust me. J

            Now, being a writer, I do have a very, very wild imagination. Sometimes I hear a couple of young 20 something’s in a conversation and think I could spin that in a New Adult book. Out at dinner the other evening there were two brothers sitting in a booth behind me. Their conversation was loud enough for me to hear easily without straining. J At one point the more talkative brother sounded almost like Dr. Phil. That was an interesting conversation. All the more possibilities for small tidbits in books.

            Those were the overheard conversations that I just randomly overheard. The next couple are conversations that may or may not have happened outside our windows in the wee hours of the morning. May have. Well, really they did. I couldn’t make this up.

            Last weekend I woke to a male voice under the bedroom window. This voice was intense, and yelling. “Gus, don’t hang up. What do you see? Don’t hang up! I’m coming to get you. Gus?” It got quiet for a minute so I thought the man kept walking. But no, a few seconds later I heard, “Gus, don’t hang up. I’ll find you, just don’t hang up.”

            Now, there could probably be nothing worse to get my mind going at such an early morning hour that a conversation like that. I immediately started running different scenarios through my mind. Was Gus drunk? On drugs? Hurt? I also found myself thinking about Gus later on that day, and wondering if he was found, and alright.

            A similar situation happened this morning. I can only relate part of the words I heard however, because most of them would be bleeped out if it were a television show. I have just finished working 50 physically demanding hours in five days, so I was exhausted. When my head hit the pillow Saturday night I was out, and I didn’t want to wake up Sunday until I had to. But no. In the hours that no one should be awake I heard a mans voice say, “Joe, no!” Then I didn’t hear anything for a minute or two. Next all I heard was one word repeatedly. The F word. And it was loud. I heard it from one corner of the block to the next corner. I have no idea what happened to this man yelling obscenities, or this person named Joe, but my mind started spinning different ideas. My first thought was someone named Joe just took off and left this guy, possibly stealing something from the man. My next thought was more disturbing. What if the F word man was on the phone and something happened to that Joe?

            Maybe my tired brain started putting those two stories together. Who knows? These odd things I hear outside our windows every now and then are giving me different ideas for additions to books already in progress.

            I’m not complaining. I’m living where I want, and I love it. I wouldn’t change a thing. ;) I can handle the occasional loud talk under my windows as long as I can spin it into something useful for me!

            Do you live in the city, outskirts, or country? When is the last time you’ve been awoke by voices outside? Do you tend to eavesdrop on conversations? (Accidentally, of course!)