Schaerbeek, Sunday no.2.5

The safeness for the non-member of a neighborhood X in a city Y lies in the park at the end of the street where non-member chose a random place to live. The curtains are closed. Fear of cars driving through puddles at night and  fear of the bass coming from "Fritterie", the French Frie takeaway close to Place Dailly where kids can fish for plastic ducks on Sundays.  It is because of the slow motion of non-member's ear at night. It prolongs every audible movement. Non-member might be hearing infrasound, but anyone believes her because it is for African elephants, not for humans.²  Non-member is on the alert. It is the laundry drum at 1 am. October ends soon and something has decided to raise the temperature on that day for about 10 degrees. Non-member covers her ears, looking desperately for an angel on the street. The windows are vibrating, breathing heavily to that ozone-attacked day in October. Her pulse knocks at her chest, her face white and the laundry drum spinning like a ticking bomb. She wants to warn the neighbors in the house. She wants to wake up the Turkish lady who smells of onions, the man next door who has three small kids but no wive, her anxious flatmates, the tall young man who wished her a "bonne journée" in the elevator that allows 120 kilos maximum. But only her she can hear the infrasound. She walks to the bathroom, plugs out the washmashine, her fingers trembling.
One more day until Sunday. One more day until she will walk down the street as a non-member of a neighborhood X in a city Y. She will give an admiring and yet pitying look at the white peacock which shares a cage with 2 donkeys, 14 pidgeons and 8 chickens. She will recognize the big crocodile on the warning label, its angry face screaming "stop feeding the rats". Non-member does not understand the deeper meaning of all that. But after all, the park is a safe place on Sunday afternoon.










² "One study has suggested that infrasound may cause feelings of awe or fear in humans. It was also suggested that since it is not consciously perceived, it can make people feel vaguely that supernatural events are taking place." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound