Sounds

 About five years ago our building owners allowed Verizon to put one small cell tower on the roof of our building; it is right above my bedroom. The portal with the ladder to get to the roof is parallel to my front door on the ceiling by a short distance of about 12 feet.  

Occasionally Verizon passes by to check on their equipment.  

Shortly after all the construction was done and the tower shown in its shiny glory, I heard something.  

The evenings and weekends are very quiet in this building and almost no traffic on the streets, the skylight keeps the stair way lit until sunset, and then the hall lights go on for safety, lights cannot mute sound.  

I truly thought the sound was a ghost planting itself in the hallway, or a phantom dark shadow lurking nearby looking to possess an innocent passerby. But that was not so.  

Only when the wind is wild can you hear it. It’s not a regular machine sound like an air conditioner or fan or idling car engine. Rather it is more like a whistle that comes and goes with the force of the wind.  

Woooooooooooooooo, a high pitched, single note, alien like, war of world’s sound halfway between a handheld whistle, a harmonica and pitch pipe.  It sounds like a low pitch whistle from a very non-human form.  

 I was taken by surprise the first time I heard it. It took me a long time to figure out what the sound was.  It is a small almost unidentifiable sound of the wind whipping through the aluminum fence surrounding the single cell tower and the entire perimeter of the roof. The pitch of the sound does not change, what you hear is the loudness or softness of it.  

After five years of hearing this sound I am still not used to it. When I hear it I stop to take note of what I am hearing and remind myself it is not an alien, ghost or phantom but rather a cell tower emitting microwaves into the atmosphere surrounded by an aluminum fence.  Woooooooooooooooooo 

Georgia P.

11/14/20