The laughter turned into something more physical, suggestions of intense pain or pleasure or something in between.Cyn and Lou knew it was the house for them.
The vintage clapboard had a charm and integrity they found lacking in the world around them. It had a practical appeal as well. There was a rental apartment upstairs that would help them build equity. Positive cash flow couldn’t come too early in life.
Cyn and Lou liked the idea of having tenants. Their upstairs neighbors might become family, beloved aunties and uncles to their young child. With the right chemistry they might babysit for free.
The young couple that came to see about the apartment was exactly what the landlords had in mind. Barbara was a slight woman with a blush in her cheeks and her Lloyd was certainly presentable enough. A background check showed they had graduated from local Catholic high schools and worked office jobs.
The young couple decided to come back on their wedding night and spend their honeymoon there. The bridesmaid and best man stopped by as well. During a moment of celebration the flowers in the Cyn’s spring garden were trampled. In hindsight squirt guns filled with champagne seemed like a mistake.
Apologies were given and accepted.
The landlords’ forbearance paid off. The tenants proved to be neat and thoughtful. They left a check in the mailbox each month. Cyn and Lou came to hope they would stay forever.
That summer arrived hot. The renters rigged a series of fans to pull a draft through their rooms while Cyn and Lou escaped the heat on their front porch.
One Sunday afternoon Cyn and Lou heard laughter float out of the open bedroom window located just above the porch. Because of the fans the newlyweds couldn’t hear that the family was sitting below them.
The laughter turned into something more physical, suggestions of intense pain or pleasure or something in between. Then the sounds stopped.
Cyn and Lou were scandalized.
When Lou confronted the couple some days later, he asked the young man if he was abusing his wife. “What kind of people are you?” The newlyweds looked at him with surprise and embarrassment but they didn’t apologize.
“We want you out of the apartment by the end of the month.” Lou said.
When the subject of the eviction came up over the years, Lou would recall his relief when the two loaded their U-Haul-It and drove off.
Cyn had been as relieved as her husband, but for reasons of her own.
She was envious of what she heard through that bedroom window. She was haunted by the suspicion that the young married couple was doing exactly what a young married couple should be doing with its Sunday afternoons. 
