Next Door

"Next Door" is a short story first published in Cosmopolitan in April 1955 and reprinted in Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968 and Complete Stories in 2017.

Plot Summary

The Leonard's and their eight year old son Paul have just moved into an old house divided by a thin wall into two dwellings, making it easy to hear their neighbors, the Hargers. Paul's parents are trying to argue quietly about whether he is old enough to be left home alone while they go to a movie. With ten minutes before the start, Paul's mother finally agrees, leaving him phone numbers for the police, fire, theater, and family doctor. Paul tells them not to worry since he'll just spend the night looking through his microscope. Soon after his parents leave, Paul hears the Hargers turn on their radio and start fighting. Distracted, Paul accidentally damages his microscope lens by grinding it into a slide and grows more troubled as the shouting gets louder. To cover up their fighting, they turn up the radio playing "All-Night Sam, the record man" who invites listeners to dedicate songs by calling the station. Hearing their fighting get louder, with dishes breaking and doors being slammed, Paul pounds on the walls, pleading with them to stop. In a daze, he calls All-Night Sam to dedicate a song from Mr. Lemuel K. Harger to Mrs. Harger. Sam asks if his parents are fighting and to simplify matters, Paul answers yes. Touched, Sam promises to do what he can.

Almost instantly, Paul hears Sam begin his dedication from the radio next door and is "appalled" by the "fantastic speed of modern communications." Sam speaks of how marriage is often difficult, with ups and downs, but if only "folks would swallow their self-respect and pride, there wouldn't be any more divorces!" With the couple next door already beginning to make up, Paul is elated to hear Sam dedicate the next song to Mrs. Lemuel K. Harger from Mr. Harger. The radio turns off and the woman begins screaming at the man again, saying that if his wife wants him back, she can have him. Harger tries to defend himself, saying his wife must have called the station and made the dedication herself. Paul hears three gun shots from next door and runs into the hallway, bumping into a terrified woman coming out. She stuffs money into Paul's pockets and tells him to keep his mouth shut. He runs into his bed and pulls the cover over his head, realizing he and All-Night Sam helped kill a man. Soon a policeman arrives, saying neighbors reported hearing gunshots. Paul is shocked to see Mr. Harger answer his door, who tells the policeman he hasn't heard any gunshots. At that moment, Harger's wife Rose returns, saying she heard his message and wants to make up. Paul returns to bed. He awakes to find that his parents have returned and are undressing him, since he fell asleep in his clothes. While Paul's father insists that he's a big boy now, his mother takes from his pants pocket a ball of money smelling of perfume.

Adaptations

A 24-minute short film of "Next Door" was made in 1976, written and directed by Andrew Silver and starring Matthew Bradley and Paul Guilfoyle. The story also served as the basis for the first installment of Showtime anthology series Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House, first aired on May 12, 1991. It was directed by Paul Shapiro, written by Jeremy Hole, and starred Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Timothy Webber, Charlene Fernetz, Jason Scott, Tamsin Kelsey, and Jay Brazeau.