I think the voices had leaked into my dreams previous to waking up. Vague images of leaning against a wall. putting my ear to the stone and hearing the sound of shouting voices, a dream-argument, a nocturnal unreal soap opera. I woke up properly at some point, jarred into proper waking by shouting outside Em's window: 'You Pussy-hole, you asshole, fuck off...' This continued for a while, along with a sinister kind of clanking. There were other voices that responded to him, but I couldn't make them out. I drifted in and out of sleep. At some point there was more commotion; 'Will you come off of there? Now please. I don't think that's a good idea, do you?'. A woman's voice, coming from one of the neighbouring flats. 'I think they're on the scaffolding next door' Em whispered to me. I hadn't even noticed the scaffolding next door when I came round earlier, -that would explain the sinister clanking though. The woman fell quiet. The voice on the scaffolding continued, joined by another. This new voice wanted to get off the scaffolding, but the original voice, whose owner sounded thick as shit, shouted at him to 'go back to sleep. You aint going anywhere. Just go back to sleep.' The new voice continued saying that he was going to 'jump off the building'. The new voice was not impressed by the veracity of the threat. More people passed by on the street. There was more shouting, more calling of people a 'pussy-hole'. 'It sounded like he was pissing off the scaffolding earlier' Em said to me. I had obviously been asleep during this. More drifting in and out of sleep. I was aware of the new voice complaining about his father at one point, how he never got on with his father, how it was his father's fault. Then there was the woman's voice again, placating, conciliatory, asking the scaffold-voices to come in. 'It aint my fault' the second voice whinged 'Gay man, straight man, it don't make no difference to me...' All this in a tone of voice that suggested anything but. 'It's just the way I was bought up'. The woman continued, 'are you going to come in now? You just felt a bit uncomfortable that was all...'
I didn't really get much sleep for the rest of the night. At one point - and whether this was a dream or not I'm not sure - I saw a shadow fall on Em's curtains. Was one of the voices on Em's balcony? Em said that her windows were shut - I remembered her saying she had taped them up earlier that week to prepare for winter. I drifted in and out of edgy, jittery sleep, listening to imagined footsteps on the balcony, to the insults thrown to passers by, and dated techno music played on what sounded like an equally dated cassette player.
In the morning, while Em slept, and I prepared for work, I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, and saw that the kitchen window, leading onto the balcony that led to the scaffolding, was open about a foot wide. No wonder their voices seemed so loud. 'I'd forgotten how noisy it was sleeping in the middle of town' I said to my half asleep girlfriend. 'It's not' she replied 'It only happens when you come round'.
