Toast & Cupboards

I have a radio crush on this man :)

This morning I heard our neighbors having a fight.  I was sitting at the table, eating my toast, listening to Steven Inskeep talk about something profound (I'm sure) on NPR, when out of nowhere I heard screaming and thumping coming from next door.  I froze.  Dropped my toast, hurried to the radio to turn it off....and anxiously stood, trying not to let my breathing disturb whatever was going on behind the wall.

It was awful.  Screaming....I mean, screaming.  Cupboards slamming.  I could feel the anger behind each pound.  My mind started to race: "Should I call 9-1-1? Should I go over and knock to make sure everything's OK?  Should I pretend I can't hear them? Oh man.  This is not good."  The screaming and the thumping just kept going....

...so I called Brian to see what he would do.  We both decided it at least warranted a trip to the main office of our apartment complex to let them know what was going on and let them decide how to handle it.  So that's what I did.

The rest of the day, I kept thinking about what I heard.  I don't know what their fight was about, but I do know that anger had consumed someone.  I could hear and feel the loss of control and the pain.....the kind of pain that top-of-the-lungs-screaming comes from.  The pain that uninhibited cupboard-slamming (they ain't made of oak in student housing!) comes from.

And I felt for them.  And I remembered...

...one night in Polson.