Mildred dragged her suitcase across the red tiled floor. Apartment 0312, she read. The door was red painted wood with a brown door knob. She inserted the key and opened the door to her new apartment. Her eyes scanned the modest room that is now her home. There was a small kitchen on the right and a small living room on the left. Farther into the apartment was her bedroom. The walls were painted white but the doors and cupboards were red. Red and white. For some reason, she never liked the color red. It hurt her eye and made her dizzy. She made a mental note to buy some paint on the hardware store as she opened her bedroom door and sat on the bed. She started unpacking her things when she heard a pounding noise that seemed to be coming from the other apartment. She stood near the wall and placed her hand on it. The walls were thin that the noise traveled easily. She then wondered why she never checked it before she decided to rent this apartment. Shaking her head, she went outside and saw that an old lady she assumed living on the other side of that room was pounding on its door.
"Turn the noise down. There are other people here as well and you’re a fucking nuisance!" she shouted through the door but never did it open.
When the lady turned and saw Mildred, she gave her a disgusted look and went back to her apartment. Not knowing what to do, Mildred slipped back inside. The noise created quiet a ruckus and the neighbors seemed to take turns banging and shouting at her neighbor's door. And yet her neighbor never seemed to care. After some time, the noise eventually died down.
The next day, Mildred cleaned and painted the walls on her apartment. Her walls were now a shade of light blue, the cupboards all white. By afternoon she was done and was exhausted that she fell asleep on the couch. She was awakened by the hammering sound coming from the other apartment again. She stood and walked towards the door. Silently wondering what kind of renovation her neighbor was doing in its apartment. This time it was a different lady who was pounding on the door.
“Stop hammering! We’re trying to sleep!” she shouted. Again, no one answered the door and the hammering continued.
Mildred didn't care about the noise at all because getting ready for work made Mildred nervous. It was all she could ever think about. It was her first time working in a mental institution and she imagined how scary the patients might be. She saw enough movies about places like that which made her imagine things she shouldn’t. But it turned out to be different. Because she was on the night shift, the hospital was quiet calm except for some disturbances from patients and these were quickly resolved. Truth be told, she only saw a few patients during her shift. The ones who never slept and preferred to watch television instead, not understanding what was on it at all.
The next few days that followed were the same; she went to work at night and was asleep in the morning. She also found a way to block the noise out with her headphones. It wasn't that Mildred was oblivious of her neighbor's disturbances, it was just that she thought it was best not to interfere, seeing as no matter how many times someone knocked, her neighbor never opened the door. And so the hammering continued and sometimes it was a drill that made the noise. She found peace when at the hospital instead at her own apartment. And Mildred almost always got to the door late, whenever she went out, there was always someone banging on the other apartment’s door. Shouting, banging on the door but she never saw her noisy neighbor even once. She felt like maybe she’s the only one left who hadn’t shouted at her neighbor’s door.
The hammering almost never ceased as far as she heard and she started to notice that not one of their neighbors ever went to the noisy apartment’s door to shout anymore. About time you guys realized that shouting at the door doesn’t do anything, she thought.
