Neighborhood charm

Okay, today was my "late day" at work...I volunteer in my son's classroom in the morning, and leave home around 11:00 to go to work. So, as I walked out to my car at 11:00, I hear the distinct *thwack* of a whip (or maybe a punch/slap) followed by a male voice crying out "uh!" I was taken aback, to say the least. I paused on the sidewalk, swivelling my canine ears to localize the sound. Sure enough there was another *thwack* followed by the same outcry. This time I had it pegged.

The sounds were coming from a house across the street next door to a dentist's office. This house is already marked as "odd" in my book. Just a few weeks ago, I came out one morning (at normal commuting hours) just as several police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance all arrived in that area. I watched as two newly "on scene" police officers approach the house. Soon, paramedics led three people from the house - all walking and seemingly coherent - to the ambulance. I had no idea what the sitch was, but guessed either domestic violence or drug-related acitivity. This was a hard-core turnout of authority for our small town.

So anyway, back to today. My instincts were screaming for me to return to my front porch and pretend to read, whilst listening to the ambient sounds to hear how they progressed. I mean, how often to do you get to observe such things? Instead, I climbed into my car and proceeded to work, opportunity missed. But before I pulled away, I heard a third repeat of the noise, but this time there were multiple *thwacks* and I wondered again if they weren't punches. They were followed by the same "uh!" of the victim. I could see no open windows, through which the noises might issue and no one in the back yard...I thought perhaps it's just a couple of people sparring in some sort of fighting practice. But these sounds were too regular and one-sided for that to be the case. Very measured. And the "victim's" cries didn't carry a note of protest or fear.

So I'm left wondering, my wild imagination running rampant, what the hell was going on? It didn't help that I'd just watched an episode of "Night Stalker" on SciFi, so my mind was in 'dark horrors of the macabre' mode. If you're familiar with this old 70's show, you know the main character (the role that made Darren McGavin famous long before A Christmas Story) is an investigative reporter who's wild hunches are usually right on the mark. It was only natural that my own reaction followed a similar vein. That's pretty much how I react to any strange situation anyway, regardless of what I've been watching on TV.

Was this just a friendly sex game (which I can certainly appreciate) or could there be something darker at work here...? Perhaps someone in that house being tortured to feed some blasphemous horror's thirst for psychic pain? And is there a difference? The curious mind reels. Or, mine does at least.

Weirdness abounds. As Alice Cooper said, 'welcome to my nightmare,' neighbor.

What do you think it was?


Playing on XM: Johnny Cash/Kris Kristofferson