Welcome to infinite expanse, the web site of Jim Benton.

Banshees

Nov 26, 03:26

I hear screaming late at night, and it scares me.

When I moved into this apartment the leasing agent said nothing about it being haunted. What she did mention was the window replacement that would soon occur (I was told mid-October, and no, it hasn’t happened yet.) I didn’t really pay much attention to that fun trivia snack at the time. Why should I care about windows?

I now understand why it was important: the windows are showing their age of thirty-plus years. They no longer fit in place as well as they ought to, and the gaps between them and the window frames are just the right size for a skull-vibrating sound to be emitted whenever the wind blows hard. And where I live, in a high rise facing Lake Michigan, the wind blows hard a lot.

I’ve considered calling the friendly uniformly-uniformed maintenance folk to see what they could do about it, but ever since the last time we had contact with them- my roommate calling about the hallway smelling like dead people- I’ve been a little afraid to. And yes, it really did and he really did too. They said it was the neighbor’s cooking.