"Hello."
With the key in the lock, I turned to see a young woman smiling at me as I was about to enter my new apartment. She had a touch of the hippy student about her and looked about nineteen or so with long sandy hair parted down the middle and loosely tied at each end. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt, a stonewashed pair of denim dungarees under a tan knee-length coat with a rainbow scarf wrapped around her neck and an old school pair of baseball sneakers.
She looked cute and seemed friendly enough.
"Uh, hi, hello," I replied carefully. To be honest, I'm a slow burner and it takes me some time to warm to new people. "Nice to meet you. Are you.." I asked, looking up and down the corridor wondering if she lived on the same floor. The sixth as it happens with an awesome view of the city.
She laughed. "Far end. Number 48. About three months now," she explained. "First day?"
I nodded. "Yeah, got the keys yesterday and just moving in now. Not that I have a lot of stuff anyway and the apartment has pretty much everything I need. Time to spread my wings."
"Ah," she grinned. "Finally flying the parental nest, huh. Same here," she glanced at her watch. "Listen, I gotta run. Architecture 101 calls. Maybe we can have coffee sometime. Sort of a housewarming party for good luck. I'm Susan by the way."
"Mike," I said. "Mike Lebowski."
She stopped at the exit and pressed a button on the wall. "So, you haven't met your neighbors yet?" she asked, sounding amused for some reason.
I shook my head. "Neighbors?"
She raised her eyebrows. "The Simpsons. Number 44. They're.." she paused as if looking for the right word. "Interesting. Yeah, interesting. Definitely interesting. Anyway, bye for now. See ya later!"
And with that, she gave me a brief wave and disappeared into the elevator.
The Simpsons, huh.
***
Two days later I met the Simpsons.
It was 1.00 a.m.
I was pulled out of the land of Nod by a muffled thud followed by excited whispers and the unmistakable sound of creaking bedsprings. Dazed, I lay there stretching and yawning staring up at the ceiling knowing what was going to happen next. Or so I thought.
Awesome. Just great. I glanced at my bedside alarm clock. "Oh, fuck off," I muttered to myself. "Shagging? At this hour?" What is it with some people? Can't they fuck at a reasonable hour? Horny bastards. Hopefully, Homer was a wham-bam-in-and-out flash in the pan splash and dash sort of guy so I could get back to sleep because I had my first class in the morning. I glanced up at the plain beige wall behind my headboard. Come on, dude. Let's fucking go. Get in. Do the business. Get the fuck out. The anticipation was even giving me a mini boner as I lay there waiting for the show to begin.
What happened next was way beyond what I was expecting.
Out of nowhere, there was this Tarzan like yell that had me sitting bolt upright in shock and surprise. Jesus H. Christ Almighty. What the flying fuck was that?
Then he did it again and by the time he was finished, he sounded like someone was strangling a fucking parrot. I sat there in disbelief. Oh, come on. You have got to be kidding me. Really?