very strange encounter

Jan 25, 2010 10:53

In November, I moved to a new apartment. I am living alone for the first time in my life. I have lived here for nearly 3 months now, and in that time, I grew accustomed to my the yelling and screaming that comes from the family next door to me. A single mom and her adolescent daughter. They are almost always home, playing loud music, and the daughter probably uses the word 'fuck' more than the word 'the'. She is always yelling at her mom 'Stop talking to yourself...who are you talking to? are you retarded? are you fucking crazy? mom, I think you are fucking retarded'.

This past week, this yelling, and really loud music has continued past 2am every night. On Saturday night, trying to get some sleep, I banged on the wall between our apartments at 2:30am. The mom said 'Quiet, you're bothering the neighbours.' Of course the little girl replied 'I don't give a fuck what the neighbours think'. I didn't fall asleep until after 3, and I decided to pay them a visit the next day.

So, yesterday in the late afternoon, I walk from my cozy apt #207 and knock on the door labelled 208. The daughter yells 'Mom, someone is at the door'. The mother hadn't heard it, takes 2 minutes to come to the door. She opens the door, and she immediately says to me 'You're not who I was expecting.' I tell her that I am her next door neighbour. She says she knows that, but she was expecting someone else. I'm quite confused. She then asks me if I could put her manuscript for a novel on the internet. I tell her I don't know what she wants me to do, I am here to ask you if you could keep the noise down after 1am. She acknowledges the loud music, and I have to remind her about the yelling. Then she says that she submitted her manuscript to 5 different publishers, and she just wants to put it out there where people can read it, she doesn't want any money from it, but would I please put it on the internet? I am very confused still, and I say I'm not sure what I am supposed to do, but I'd be interested (I guess) to read it. She says great, I'll bring it over in 5 minutes.

20 minutes later, she knocks at my door, hands me a manuscript of about 100 pages, and immediately takes 3 steps back from me. Either she is shy, or I smell. she is now in the hallway halfway between my apartment and hers. I tell her again that I'm really not sure what she wants me to do with this. She tells me she just wants it online, and she doesn't have the internet. I say I need a copy on disk, so I can upload it. She tells me she doesn't have that, she wrote this on a typewriter. I explain to her that in order to put this online, someone would have to type it into a computer. She asks me if I have any friends that would be willing to do that. "Not likely." She seems agitated, and just wants to get back into her apartment. I tell her I will read her novel and tell her what I think. She says that's good. She goes into her apartment, and I mine.

I sit down on my bed and look at the title page of 'Love Infested' by my neighbour who called herself Jay, but wants to be published under the pseudonym of Gwendolyn Stevens. The title page is infested with notes, in black pen, to me. They are all written facing differing angles, and they just get stranger and stranger.

"On Internet. ASAP. Thanks. I never thought it would be so easy to do!"

"I'm in a really good mood these days-usually-seeing as how I know you've heard me talk, I know you also can understand (or try to!) me a little bit. Also, I'll try to stop the dirty talk, I just don't have a boyfriend right now!"

"My last two neighbours were 2 gay men...etc."

"I think I heard...or know U understand my situation (problems)"
arrow connecting to the next blurb
"OK. So that's cool if you do. I thought I were some guy - stranger - who I met in the street, + he asked me for directions (Well I guess I liked him a bit! So now you can understand the "talks" in the closet bathroom better. Sorry"

"P.S. Hey Neighbor - Forgot your name again - this is for just U 2 know - I had a high school Eng. teacher - man - whose name was Beamer. He failed me! I wasn't doing my homework."

"P.P.S. Sorry about the stuff"

--------

Now her novel is a science fiction story about a not too distant future where the concept of love has been completely forgotten, and an evil zillionaire rules the world. Two scientists discover a black fungus growing out of orange trees, and they discover, that this fungus is love. It's infesting, and their instinct is to stop it, but....! no, I'll let you figure out the twist for yourself.

The novel is not good. It's full of grammatical errors, introduces new pieces of technology and slang assuming the reader understands. It's not readable really. It is also the combination of various edits. She is very languid, descriptive, but lacks cohesion. This novel, despite its pure creative ambition for arts sake, should not be published.

But remember, she didn't want any money for it, so the whole world works out in the end!
And this is as close as her story will likely get to being on the internet.
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