{"id":27975,"date":"2022-12-05T10:42:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=27975"},"modified":"2022-12-05T10:42:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:42:55","slug":"the-listeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=27975","title":{"rendered":"The Listeners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Low dropped ceilings, buzzing fluorescent tubes,\nDim, orangish light with sporadic\nFlashes, damp patches, dusty tables.\n\nOn the radio, words mixed with static.\nMartinez thinks she might hear a number\nThat matches a room on the list she\u2019d stuck\n\nTo the beige paint on the wall that's nearer\nHer desk than where she stacks food in boxes.\nShe\u2019d better check it out. She picks neither\n\nThe hall with endless cartons piled in blocks\nNor the one lined on both sides with locked doors,\nBut the passage with booths and swivel-chair backs\n\nReceding down one side, and desks and drawers\nDimly visible through the smudged windows \nOf offices on the other. Plump drips\n\nSoak the carpet, and lint collects in wads.\nAt an intersection, a woman kneels\nBy a vacuum-cleaner with wet wipes.\n\nBoth know neither knows words the other knows.\nThey stare silently until the radio\nNudges Martinez on with a burst of noise.\n\nHand on her nightstick, eyes on the long row\nOf interior panes and hollow-core doors.\nA long walk now, not one you\u2019d want to redo.\n\nYou can go in this direction for days,\nBut are there vending machines stocked with food?\nLights flicker and the radio\u2019s volume drops.\n\nIn the sudden quiet, she is afraid.\nSomething is off. She is watched. Every hair\nOn her arms rises, taut. What she'd feared ...\n\nShe is running, vision jerky, with her\nHands out as if to ward something away.\nAt the corner, the vacuum-cleaner's there,\n\nBut no woman. Martinez thinks she knows why.\nShe will call it in. \"Incident,\" she says.\n\"Unresolved. Urgent.\" Things are awry.\n\nShe hears fizzling and some words. Her SOS\nMay have drawn their attention, or else not--\nMartinez can never tell. Her breath subsides.\n\nIn place of panic, anger rises next.\nInto the radio, she states: \"I quit.\nI'm out. Confirm.\" She strikes a cabinet\n\nTo make a bang they'll have to hear, quite\nSure the sound resounds on their end, too.\nIt does. They hear her and make themselves quiet.\n\nTheir strange stillness answers her, an undertow\nBeneath the buzzing and the steady drip.\nThey don't want her to hear them<\/em>. They wait to\nResume until she lets her radio drop.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
(Walter de la Mare’s “The Listeners<\/a>” meets “The Backrooms<\/a>” of urban legend, in terza rima<\/em> with slant rhymes.) See also: “Arachne<\/a>,” “the laughter of the gods<\/a>,” “what it looks like to live<\/a>,” and “self help: a short story<\/a>.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Low dropped ceilings, buzzing fluorescent tubes, Dim, orangish light with sporadic Flashes, damp patches, dusty tables. On the radio, words mixed with static. Martinez thinks she might hear a number That matches a room on the list she\u2019d stuck To the beige paint on the wall that’s nearer Her desk than where she stacks food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-verse-and-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27975"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28014,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27975\/revisions\/28014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}