Читать книгу The Hum - Ralph Anderson - Страница 7

Uuh. What is it? Why did I wake up? Do I have to pee? No. Lie still for a few minutes and try to sleep… What time is it?” Rolling over I slowly open my eyes to get a look at the time on the digital alarm clock on the night stand. Oh. 2:17. Damn! … OK sleep… What’s that? A motor of some kind. A generator? A transformer? Is it from a neighbor? A very low, deep pulsating hum. Aah! How annoying. Maybe this is why I can’t sleep. A neighbor must be running something. Do I hear it, or do I feel it? Or is it both? I can’t tell. Maybe it’s the air pump from the fish tank downstairs. But it could be a truck running its motor in the parking lot. I raise myself up on my left elbow and turn my head trying to determine the direction of the hum. I can’t tell. This is going to drive me crazy. It’s barely audible, like it’s coming from inside me. OK I better go look and see what it is or I won’t be able to sleep.

I click on a flashlight and quietly slip out of bed as to not disturb my wife and leave our third floor bedroom and head for the main floor carefully listening for the location of the hum. Nothing obvious yet. I stand still on each landing for a moment. Nothing. But the hum is still there. Reaching the living room where the fish tank is located I listen to the air pump. The sound is subdued and certainly not loud enough to be the hum. I move close to the common wall between us and our neighbor’s home and listen. Nothing again. But I still hear it… no I feel it. Or is it both.

OK, I’ll check outside. I am determined to find out where this hum is coming from. Maybe it’s from outside. I slip on my crocs open the front door and step outside and listen. The only sounds are crickets and croaking frogs. Not even an air conditioning heat pump is on at any of the town home units. Let’s check the parking lot. I walk to the end of the row of homes and turn the corner towards the parking lot. It is obvious that there are no cars or trucks running. The night is quiet. I turn and look at the tall microwave cell phone tower just 50 yards away. Could that be it? Oh well. I head home and back to bed.

Without my wife realizing it I slip back into bed, close my eyes and try to sleep. But there it is again. A deep, almost imperceptible low frequency, pulsating hum. Damn! It’s going to be a long night. I close my pillow over my ears but it doesn’t go away.