By Patrick Comiskey
The sound started at night, after dark, interrupting the post-twilight hours in the days after the hurricane, when the whole property, verdant and lush, had been revived by the rains. Travis Lent (Court 5) and his wife Jess were the first to hear it: a weird chirping sound, rhythmic and regular, high pitched, and very, very annoying.
Lent is no stranger to rhythmic sounds—he plays percussion for a two-person band called Mirthquake—but this, like a cross between a birdsong and a smoke alarm, was just irritating. “It sounded electronic, with perfect intervals,” he said, “like a smoke alarm with a dying battery,” adding: “That’s a sound I really hate.” However if it was a smoke alarm, it was acting strangely: the device would chirp for just fifteen minutes and then go silent.
After two irritating nights he contacted Security, thinking they’d be able to help him track down which of his neighbors was too lazy to change a nine-volt battery.
Lent is no stranger to rhythmic sounds—he plays percussion for a two-person band called Mirthquake—but this, like a cross between a birdsong and a smoke alarm, was just irritating. “It sounded electronic, with perfect intervals,” he said, “like a smoke alarm with a dying battery,” adding: “That’s a sound I really hate.” However if it was a smoke alarm, it was acting strangely: the device would chirp for just fifteen minutes and then go silent.
After two irritating nights he contacted Security, thinking they’d be able to help him track down which of his neighbors was too lazy to change a nine-volt battery.