Sounds in the Night (Details)
citation: Collier's, November 24, 1951, 128(21):20-21, 50-52
alias: None
teaser: It's three in the moring, when most good citizens are asleep, and that clown Timberlake Ryan has to start looking for excitement. He finds it, too — without stirring from his apartment.
summary: Awake in the middle of the night, Timberlake Ryan pretends to be talking in his sleep about another woman. Seeing Tim's game, his wife Eve pretends to be sleep-talking about regretting having married him.
Both now awake, they listen to the sounds of boats in the East River. They also hear a drunk wandering the streets below their apartment.
Tim and Eve debate how much money it would take for either of them to walk
to the river at this time of night. Tim imagines visiting the
vilest of New York's water-front dens.
He gets Eve out of bed, mixes
them drinks, and welcomes her into the living room where dance music is playing
on the radio. He considers giving up sleep, entirely.
Tim proposes they go out to see what happens at this time of night. He suggests they join newspapermen at coffee shops near the Times Building, pretending to be foreign correspondent and lady photographer. Tim notes ships are being loaded at the docks. He imagines gun battles in the sewers of New York.
Again they hear the drunk yelling outside. Then a woman yells for a police officer. Rushing to the window, Eve and Tim see a policeman cross the street toward the drunk, above them, a woman in a second-story window. As the policeman stands alongside the drunk below, the woman in the window dumps a scrub bucket of water, dousing the policeman more than the drunk.
Tim's delighted as the furious policeman performs a dance
of rage.
Eve wonders what will happen to the
woman in the window, but Tim expresses little concern about either the
cop or the woman, finding amusement, if not justice, in the exchange.
Back in bed, Tim confides to Eve he's always wondered about sounds in the night, and what happened next. Tonight's drama, he concludes, was the reward of giving up sleep.
As the drunk continues yelling off in the distance, Tim falls asleep kowing he really lived.
words: 5,051
genre: Timberlake Ryan, Slice-of-Life
similar: Manhattan Idyl, I'm Mad at You, Breakfast in Bed, Long-Distance Call, The Little Courtesies, Week-End Genius, My Cigarette Loves Your Cigarette, One-Man Show, Man of the Cocktail Hour, Tattletale Tape; You Haven't Changed a Bit, Sneak Preview, I Like It This Way, Husband at Home, Legal and Tender, Rainy Sunday, Expression of Love, Vive la Différence, Bedtime Story, Take One Rainy Night, Old Enough for Love, The Sunny Side of the Street, No Time for the Billiard Ballet
people: Timberlake Ryan, Eve Ryan, Arthur O. Sulzberger
places: New York, NY: East River, Battery Park, World's Fair, New York Times building, Madison Avenue
comments: Forthcoming