Enigma of Your Imagining

 

You don’t know me. I live either in the apartment

next door or the one a floor below. I would introduce

myself formally face-to-face, but due to a physical

infirmity, I have not been out of my place for well

over a year.

Your apartment has been rented and vacated several

times since I moved in about 3-years ago. So, not

getting to know you is practically speaking, okay.

Since you too will likely not be living in your apartment

for too long, I thought you might like to know, I have a

mental picture of who you might be. How is that, you

may ask? My sensory perception is triggered and inhan-

ced by vibrations and sound. Loud voices overheard,

the pace and pressure of footprints across the floor,

the sudden dropping of heavy objects, the regular

bouncing of a ball or annoying hammering of nails

into the walls conjure up vivid images for me.

I suspect, due to the rent structure here, your wall

hangings are not original works of art, but rather

a tacky collection of cheaply framed prints from

Walmart or Costco.

And given all that, my mental assessment of your

physical and psychological makeup is that you are

overweight, self-centered, an inconsiderate narcis-

sist who enjoys pictorial generic scenes of places

you only dream of visiting one day. And your pre-

ference in music sucks, is obnoxiously loud and in

poor taste.

It is my wish that your occupancy here will only

last a few months, and your curiosity of the enig-

matic tenant who lives next door or below remains

a deep dark mystery to you throughout your tenure

here.

And that my silent, reclusive and undefined nature

may suspiciously indicate a cynical and diabolical

ax murderer is quietly plotting his next execution.

Due to my physical inability to reveal myself in the

flesh and personally lodge my complaints, I trust

you realize that I have lots of time on my hands to

silently plot and creatively ruminate.

When it comes time to renew your lease, I strongly

suggest that you may want to reconsider. Without

actually seeing me physically, you can never fully

realize how perfectly harmless I really am. However,

I do dabble quite a bit in creative writing.

                       -30-

Chris Hanch 4-30-2021