The streets in Bushwick, Brooklyn buzz with schoolchildren skipping down the concrete sidewalks. Mothers speak rapid-fire Spanish as the children squeal. In the background, construction workers start up a concrete machine that rumbles for minutes. Car tires rumble by slowly.

Somewhere behind a trashcan there are rats rummaging and pushing through cans. The crunch of shoes walking down the steps to the streets are muffled, but after listening for a while you can hear them more clearly.

Then finally after even a longer amount of time you can hear the brief small whispers of the wind and the creaks it makes when it hits the doors and windows of the apartment building. The smaller sounds of the wind and rats get louder, even though they originally were unnoticed.

Then finally my neighbor slams the door behind me and a car horn blasts. More kids go skipping down the block as I walk back upstairs.