Sunday, Aug. 04, 2019 - 11:20 a.m.
My Neighbourhood on a Sunday Morning
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The family next door has three little kids, Their little cousins are spending the weekend with them.. its a three day weekend in Ontario, that means old music, Bar B Q's, beer and starting this year- legal pot
It was loud times yesterday with so many little kids running around in their backyard with hoses in their bathing suits. Joyful squeels of delight..but they go to bed at 8 pm so the parents can have a quiet drink and a smoke in the dark ..its not in anyway annoying.
It is the music of youth in summer
This morning the troop of kids started up again early, joyful squeels etc.. I was happy to hear them enjoying summer..and thought nothing of it. By 11 am it was a riot out there as familial power struggles took over til the Moms came out with snacks and the whole scene - unseen to me, became quiet on cue... kids at ease eating watermelon and popsicles ...holy angels in row catching drips
Then I heard it... a series of low moans.. that started and then stopped...It sounded like two kids , then one in a low wailing moan as if they were drowning and gasping for air...then it was quiet and then it started again..the haunting prolonged uhhhhh that rose and sunk in pitch then faded away, it was creepy.
To my ears it sounded like someone was hurt and weakly moaning,, but the moaning sequence seemed to repeat, as if a kid had had a stroke and couldn;t form the words they were so anxiously trying to pronounce.. a certain ..desperation
I was on guard now, SOS alert listening hard to the woeful moaning.. was somebody pinned under a heavy weight and was feebly calling out for help ? is there a broken bone involved, a concussion, serious bleeding followed by shock ?
Do I get involved? Do I leap the fence heroically and come to their aid like I was trained to do from the St John's Ambulance courses I learned in Boy Scouts ?
There was something about the woeful moan that seemed hauntingly familiar.. I could barely make out the slurry words..I could almost understand what they were calling out but not completely sure if I could..so I kept listening, hoping for a clue.
Then I was overwhelmed by understanding and just in time?
... I connected to their woeful message I knew exactly what they wanted.. by paying super human attention I could understand the backyard drama in its completeness
It was seven year olds listening to Queen with earphones singing along to " We eee -eee-eh will rock you' " following the tune more or less, a little flat and not in any way connecting with the lyrics
