Mildred sat down excitedly, as she did every night, to watch “Wheel of Fortune,” her favorite program, when suddenly a loud commotion of music came from the neighbor’s garage as it did most days. She thought, “Not this noise again,” and stood up from her squeaky reclining chair and shuffled over to the phone grumbling and groaning as she walked. As the irritated, hunched over woman dialed the neighbor’s number, she remembered tonight was bingo night at the senior center. The phone rang until the answering machine message came on and said, “Hello, we’re sorry we couldn’t get to the phone right now, please leave a message after the beep. BEEP!”

“Uh, yeah this is your neighbor Mildred from over the fence, and I’m just trying to watch Wheel of Fortune and I just opened up the windows to get some air in the house, and I’m hearing a lot of noise, lots and lots of noise and I thought we had an agreement, and I was hoping you could keep that agreement. I’m disappointed in you. Okay, bye.” She decided she needed to take some action if she wanted the noise to stop. She walked outside her house, and walked over to the neighbor’s screaming garage, which the loud music was coming from, and she shook her fist and started shouting through the window at the kids playing music.

The music stopped. “Wonderful!” thought Mildred. She decided she should at least work on her garden since she was already outside. She began watering her plants, when suddenly four boys showed up. They appeared to be about the age of fourteen and one was carrying a brown wicker basket. The rest of them just stood there and smiled.
“Hello” Chris greeted.
“Oh, hi,” Mildred replied.
“We’d really like to apologize for making all that noise.” Nate told her.
Chris, the one holding the basket said, “We brought you a fruit basket as an apology.”
“Oh, why thank you, you didn’t need to do that. But, what you do need to do is you need to realize there's a whole bunch of people living around here. Here’s the deal. Okay? This, this just isn't the countryside, okay? Are we clear on that? There’s a whole bunch of people living around here, okay? Here’s the deal. I understand you guys gotta practice, so how often do you guys practice?”


“This is actually the first time” Matt replied.
Mildred glared at them with a look of distrust. “I see. Well, I’ve known of people before, right?” she said.
“Right,” Chris replied.

“And what they do is they soundproof. You see, you guys aren’t the first band, okay.” she told them.
“Oh, I see,” Nate replied. “Won’t you take this fruit basket.”
“No that’s okay, I just want . . .”
“But, I'd really like you to take this basket.” Chris told Mildred.
“You know what, that's okay.” Mildred told the boys.
“At least take the flowers.” Matt said.
“No, that's okay but thank you very much.” Mildred informed them.
“Yeah, at least the flowers, or a tangerine,” Chris said holding the orange fruit. “What about an apple? Apples are good. They taste good. How about a banana?” He picked up a bunch of bananas and then said with a look of disgust on his face, “I don’t like bananas they remind me of popsicles.”
“No thank you!” Then, she showed the boys their way out.

Suddenly, she remembered a long time ago, when she was a child practicing her hobby of raking the sidewalk, or cement raking as some call it, when suddenly her elderly neighbor, “Knock off that racket!” She was very sad she was never able to seriously pursue her sport.

Then, suddenly she was back in the present and she realized she should stop complaining about the music coming from the neighbor’s garage. She shuffled back into her little house, called the neighbors, and said, “The music sounds great! Keep playing!” She then walked down to her chair, as happy as could be, and she sat down. As soon, as she sat down, “Wheel of Fortune” was over.

“Oh, well,” she thought, “I can always watch Wheel of Fortune tomorrow. Tonight’s bingo night!”