Transpose

This image brings to mind some thoughts and memories.


Memory

My first partner went to university in a mid-sized town in Canada. She lived downtown equidistant from the fire and police headquarters in a rather rundown Victorian two-story house. She shared the two main floors with two room-mates; one her best friend and a new girl from Trenton, Ontario. In the basement was a very small apartment in which two foreign students resided. They where Chinese attending the same university. We never saw them but one day I got a call from Sandra asking me to come over after work as she had something she wanted to discuss.

We met and went to her room and she recounted how the night before she had heard through the heating vent in her room noises that sounded like the male partner of the couple in the basement was beating or abusing his female partner. She then asked me to bend down and put my ear to the vent and since they were home I could hear them talking. It was indistinct and since in was in Cantonese or Mandarin this made it harder to get a clear idea of the tone of the conversation.

We discussed this and she wanted to go the the police so we decided that was best. She would make a hypothetical inquiry as what would be the proper thing to do in a case such as this. Later that night she called me and related that she had spoken to a female police officer and that officer had advised her to talk to the woman in question personally.

My partner did so later at a time when she knew the male partner would not be home and it turns out the sounds she heard was them fucking. The Chinese woman was a bit embarrassed to have to relate this information and I am sure she was wondering what else my partner had heard from that vent.

We solved the problem in the summer and fall by putting a piece of wood over the vent and the sounds were muted to everyone's satisfaction. The voyeur in me would have loved to listen in but honestly there were never any times I was resident where such noises emanated from the vent.

But it also got us to thinking:  Had they heard us fucking as well?

Thoughts

I cannot recollect ever hearing anyone making love. I have seen people engaging in sex at a distance like the first time I saw a woman giving a man a blow job when I was 12 deep in the woods at a local park near my home. Me and my friend watched fascinated at the blond woman in the flower print summer dress move her head back and forth while the man held his shirt up to his chest and let his head roll back with eyes closed in pleasure. Shamefully we did not walk away and let them enjoy this intimacy in private but waited until they were done and yelled some silly teenager slogan like "Fuck her. I did!" at them and then ran away.

Having had sex in some pretty grotty motels I often wonder if others have heard me and am apt to imagine their voyeuristic pleasure or ethical disgust with the noises coming from the thin walls of the motel room. (Tip: try and get an end unit then only one room can hear you!).

What comes to mind in the photograph above is several ideas. Is that woman actually hearing lovemaking and placing herself in her mind's eye as the recipient of the attention of that man? Perhaps she has listened before and got the gumption up to introduce herself to him at a later time and become the subject of his passion and cock?

If one was lonely and without a lover that noise would probably enhance the feeling of personal isolation.

I would love to hear from you kindly readers your thoughts and experiences...