I was told that they started shortly after 10PM.

I got a text message from Karen shortly after midnight. The message read, “The neighbors have been fighting. Be careful when you come out of the elevator.” I was having a chat with Brian C. over a pot of tea at Vino Vino, so I didn't pay too much attention to the message.

At about 1:20AM, I picked up the phone while the cab driver was racing through the tunnel. Karen's tired voice was on the other end, “They’re still fighting…very loudly…people are running up and down the stairs…. I don’t know who........ I don't want you to accidentally get bumped or something…so be careful when you come out of the elevator.”

I came into the building. Nothing was going on. The elevator was parked on the 6^th floor. For no particular reason, I kind of half-expected to see the neighbor dad when the elevator doors opened in front of me, but no one was there. Maybe it's because he's the only person iI've met in that family. Bill and I saw him once in the elevator. Chatty guy..... very well-mannered. He had just come back from jogging that day and he was telling Bill where to jog. I found it hard to imagine him fighting loudly with his wife. It doesn't seem like something he'd do. He should know better.

Meanwhile, things were unexpectedly quiet, which added suspense to the whole thing. I had my index finger on the “open” button before we reached the 6th floor. When the doors opened, instead of an angry couple, what greeted me was a pile of clothes scattered on the floor. I was trying to avoid stepping on any of them when I noticed a police uniform in the middle and a white female blouse in the upper right hand corner of the pile. “Which one is a cop?” I wondered as I turned the key.

Poor Karen looked exhausted in front of the TV. She was half-watching some horror movie. “What’s going on? They stopped fighting finally?” She rolled her eyes at me, “They’re taking a bathroom break. Pretty soon, you’ll see….it’d be like DingDingDingDing! Round Three!” I scuffed at her sarcastic comment and took a look at the clock. No one would continue fighting this late at night. After all, it was a bit after 1:30 in the morning already! Well guess what?! It really didn’t take long until I heard a faint female voice surfacing from afar. The volume and speed increased as she talked, and she didn’t stop talking for the next 3 hours.

So the story was that the husband went out drinking and the wife accused him for cheating on her. During the first 3 hours of the argument, she kept on taunting him to hit her and he kept telling her to back off. Eventually, he gave her what she had been asking for before I came home. Between 1 and 4AM, Karen and I finished watching a horrible vampire movie, the dad left, the daughter freaked out and started fighting with her mom, and the wife called some people crying about how she was abused by her cheating husband. You can imagine how loud she must have been in order for us to piece the story together so perfectly. At one point, the grandpa came to talk to his daughter and to get the keys for his son-in-law (we guessed the husband went to his in-laws after hitting his wife). Then the police came.

The wife wanted to file for domestic abuse as soon as the cops showed up. The cops told her bluntly that they didn’t come for her. In fact, they were here because neighbors called about the noise she was making. Then the husband came back. The wife immediately started shouting, “What kind of a father are you?” hyterically. The cops shushed her and lazily asked if she’d like to file for domestic abuse. They explained to her the necessary procedures like going to the hospital for a doctor’s note and going down to the station for an official file etc. We guessed the wife shook her head ‘cause a cop mocked her, “Okay…now you don't. I thought this was what you wanted. Oh! Do you think you might want to file for domestic abuse after we leave?” The cops took down their names and made sure everything was alright before leaving. The husband went inside with the wife. He closed the door carefully and quietly behind me.

Karen stood up from the couch. She held out her pinky, “Wanna bet if she’d start fighting again?”
“I bet she’d stop for the night. She’s been at it for at least 5 hours. She’s gotta be exhausted.”

The truth was, Karen and I were exhausted and we just wanted it to stop. We turned off the lights in the living room and each started getting ready for bed. I heard a faint female voice from afar when I walked into the bathroom. After I took off my contact lenses, brushed my teeth, changed into my PJs, and crawled into bed with my laptop, I heard the elevator was on its way up. The elevator doors opened and someone closed the neighbor’s door very carefully and quietly. It was finally quiet.