So we were faced with a decision: to reenter this booming, throbbing, thrumming complex, which by this point seemed to be wheezing in time with the sounds issuing forth from each of the two aboveground floors, or else stand on the other side of this short metal fence and see what happened. He was still holding my hand, such was the urgency of our egress and the solidity of our transfixion on the living building before us, and we looked at each other and chuckled, each dropping his shoulders in unison and relaxing somewhat. Looking at it from the vantage, I did not think the house was actually liable to collapse, as the bricks at its base seemed both sturdy and newer, as if the owner had prepared it for the sonic abuse it was now enduring. The most vulnerable element of the structure, perhaps its Achilles heel, was the frame around the front picture window. It shook crazily, irregularly, seemed to slip and pop back up out of time with the rest of the house, it was a perplexing detail amongst a generally quite strange set of phenomena. I focused my attention on it, the glass shimmered with each next modulation of the sounds, it was another newer element, it held the frame together, keeping the entire enterprise from being crushed. He spoke first, as there was nothing else to do, a common reason:
“It is kind of pretty, isn’t it?”
“I don’t even know where I am anymore. This doesn’t make any sense to me. Do you know the upstairs people?”
“Well, Dallow is up there, for one.”
This was not wholly unexpected, though it made it more likely that the sounds were the result of something malfunctioning than being composed. Though Jeffrey might tell me that the line between the two was finer than I was giving it credit for. I figured I might as well pursue this line a bit further:
“What do you think he’s doing up there?”
“Eh, what he always does, I guess.”
This was a frustrating answer, but I didn’t feel like doing any further investigative work with someone who was obviously as uncertain about the whole affair as was I.
“Well, what should we do?”
“I don’t think we need to do anything. It’s not going to fall down. Did you want to see what’s going on inside?”
Against all better judgment, I did indeed.
