Call 911

Last night, just as I was going to sleep, about midnight, I heard screaming and crying. They sounded like they were in the hallway outside my apartment.  I got up and walked over to my door to listen. I couldn't see anything out the peep hole and the crying had stopped, so I went back to bed.

I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking what if it had been a child who was being abused and I heard it but did nothing? I was mulling this over, trying to decide if I should go knock on the door and imagining what they would say and how it might just make things worse in the long run if I couldn't prove they were injuring a child, when the blood curdling screams began again and this time they were more strident and didn't stop. I ran back to my door and looked out the peephole again.

A woman came out of the apartment across the hall and began to beat on my door. I opened it and she came in saying, "Call the police! My phone is dead! Call the police!"

Stunned, I paused too long and a man came out of the same apartment and pushed his way into mine. I hurried to go get my phone while they were screaming at each other. She telling him to leave, to go home, to get out. Him saying just take me home, don't call the police. They both came towards me and I handed her my phone. I told her to call the police, but was so shaken I forgot my phone locks.

He picked up my glasses and told her he was going to break them if she didn't hand him the phone and she told him they weren't hers, they were mine. He dropped them just as she started to hand me the phone saying you need to unlock it. He intercepted the phone and started to leave, but she grabbed him saying it was my phone not hers. Suddenly they were wrestling for the phone and both fell on my bed!

Standing there without my phone and no way to call for help it suddenly dawned on me what a dangerous situation I could be in. I tried to diffuse it by asking her why she just didn't take him home and she said she was too afraid of him.  I honestly didn't know what had happened at this point. I didn't know if he'd had a gun, or a knife, or what he had done to her. I was terrified.

He threw the phone on the bed and they both left. I locked my door and went into my bathroom to put as many walls between us as I possibly could and dialed 911. I was shaking so hard I could barely do that and when the responder answered I gave her my address and couldn't understand why she was having so much trouble with it. She spelled it wrong and seemed confused. I live in a very prominent complex. Anyone in our town knows where it is. Finally she said she was transferring me to my local unit and another woman began asking me more questions. I was shocked that I couldn't remember what these two people were wearing. The second responder asked me if they were still fighting and I went to look out my peephole again. The woman was locking her door, wearing a pink jogging suit (I noted that this time) and then she knocked on my door again. I handed my phone to her and let her talk to the police herself. But this time I locked my door as soon as she came in.

She began telling the police a tale of woe that sounded like something on television, or a teenager whining to her best friend. It was all about he called me names. He said I was a whore. He said this and that and he made me mad then he started throwing my stuff around the apartment. Suddenly I didn't feel as sorry for her, or as worried as before, but I was still shaking when someone knocked on the door again.

Looking out this time it was the police. They took over from there and there I was -- in the middle of the night -- shaking like a leaf -- and alone.  It took me hours to get back to sleep and when I did I kept having dreams about someone screaming for help. This morning I was still so cold I couldn't get warm and it is warm out today.

I am shocked by how many bad choices I made last night and even more shocked by how rattled I was and how long the residuals lasted.  In a television show my part would have been negligible and easily forgettable, but it doesn't feel that way to me.

And I just realized that the reason the responder was so confused was that I called 911 in North Carolina because my phone number is from there.