sibling rivalry

One of the best parts about my job as a graduate student is that my schedule is very flexible. This is also one of the worst parts because it means that I often work evenings, Saturdays, holidays, etc. I almost had a near breakdown when I forgot my laptop in Pittsburgh and didn't realize til we reached New York for the Christmas holidays.

Having such flexibility means that I often work from home. Usually I wake up around 7, and if its going to be a marathon working form home day, I don't even shower- just keep refilling the coffee and stay upstairs in the office, sometimes leaving to do something around the house like laundry to break the monotony of whatever it is I'm reading or working on.

Working from home, with an office window that faces the street, means that I have an interesting perspective on the neighborhood. The kids who aren't in school, but should be, the neighbors who are or are not home, the professional dog walkers with their packs going up and down the block, the day-care kids, hands tied together, parading down the sidewalk. It's usually benign, sometimes entertaining, and sometimes scary. Once the bell rang at 3pm, and I got scared- for some reason I don't like to answer the door when Im home alone - no one knows I'm here and no one should be looking for me. And I don't have the patience for the Jehovah's witnesses or the Mormons. I learned a few hours later via our trusty neighborhood list-serve that 2 men were ringing doorbells to see if anyone was home on all the houses on our street, then attempting to break in to the presumed empty house. A house a few down was burglarized. Luckily we are in the middle of a row, and our back door is hard to get to, so we were saved, but I was scared.

Often, I am comforted by the fact that 2 of our neighbors are elderly, retired, and home all day. They keep an eye out on the neighborhood, know all of the comings and goings, and act as a live security system.
The problem is, sometimes you learn things about people you don't really want to know. Two of our neighbors are siblings. I'm not sure if either ever married. Their house and yard is well-kept, and I'm very envious of their English cottage style garden in the back. They are both very active- he runs in the park, she plays tennis, they walk their small dog. They are very friendly, very chatty (in that specific Pittsburgh way). They remind us when to move our car for street cleaning, or when the last frost should be for planting. It can be a bit suffocating, but they mean well.
The problem is, they fight.
They more than fight.
Nearly every day I hear them screaming. Really, I hear him screaming. I hear it best from my office or bathroom. I can never make out the words (trust me, I try). But the emotion is very clear- anger. I mentioned it once to another neighbor, a friend of ours, and she said she had never heard anything. Reggie has never heard it either. It only happens during the day, and apparently only on the weekdays. Today, I heard her yelling back, which actually made me feel good because I was getting worried that maybe he was abusive, and it was all one-sided. He stormed out a few minutes ago, but came back in after a quick walk to the end of the street, then left again in the car. It's unsettling to hear such fighting.

Is it just sibling rivalry? Can sibling rivalry still present like this late in life? They must be in their 70s. I love my brother, but I can't imagine living my golden years with him in a small house- the same house they grew up in, actually. But I also can't imagine what could induce such hysterics. Do I say something to her? He is the one I usually hear. I think maybe that's being nosey to speak up. But he is really screaming. They both seem so "normal" otherwise- happy, healthy, active, friendly. I guess you just never know what's going on behind closed doors. It makes me a little unnerved around them- like I know something personal that I shouldn't.

sometimes it's better to just make up stories about your neighbors than to know the actual truth, or half-scary truth.