“Did you hear it?” she said in a stage whisper.
“Yeah.” I was half asleep. A moment later we heard whimpering, like an injured puppy. My frightened wife clutched my arm and shook it. Her grip was not comfortable.
“Did you hear that?”
I sat up. “Yeah, yeah. Listen.”
Another scream ripped the night, followed by more whimpering. We got out of bed and went to the open window. We crouched under it and stared at the house next door. A young couple rented it. They had moved in two weeks ago. We hadn’t met them, but had seen them coming and going. The woman was quite attractive, with a shapely body and long dark hair, although I didn’t mention that I thought she was attractive to my wife. Julie was sensitive about me looking at other women. The man wore suits, as if he worked in an office.
The sound started again, clearly a woman, not a puppy, and Julie grabbed me again. I don’t know why she did that. We knew the sounds were definitely coming from next door. I pried her fingers off my arm and held her hand so she couldn’t grab me again. Good thing I did, because suddenly the woman cried out again.
“My god, do you think he’s hurting her?” my wife whispered.
I didn’t know why she was whispering; there was no else one around.
“Why are you whispering?” I said. She was staring wide-eyed at me.
“Shhh! I think he must be hurting her.” She strained to hear, leaning close to the window.
“Oh, oh, oh. Yes!” came from the neighbors’ house. My wife shot a puzzled look at me.
“He’s not hurting her,” I said. “They’re doing it.”
“Really? You think they’re having sex?” She sounded unbelieving.
Julie’s not a screamer and apparently she never heard one before. I had, but I didn’t want to get into that with her. She’s actually very ladylike in bed. She grunts politely and manages some rapid breathing and quiet moaning when she came. I probably made more noise.
“Yeah. They’re having sex,” I said, wishing they were having it with the lights on and the shades up. But you take what you can get, so we continued to crouch by the window and listened to the woman yelling until the man’s labored grunting signaled they were through.
“My god,” Julie said in a normal voice.