Aphelion

Anybody remember Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue"? Various witnesses reported hearing shouting in a foreign language -- but no two witnesses agreed as to WHICH foreign language. However, each witness described the language as unfamiliar -- if the witness spoke German, he or she guessed it might have been (say) Spanish, if the witness spoke Spanish, he or she guessed it might have been Russian.

The "joke" was that the language was orangutan -- the murders had been committed by a trained ape (trained to shave its master as part of a carnival act), trying to carry out its training on panicky strangers. So -- Our Hero thinks the neighbors have a "Swedish or German" accent. People who spoke Swedish and/or German would probably think otherwise.

(Rose Tyler to the Doctor: If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North? (Northern England, she means)

The Doctor: Lots of places have a North...)

RM

Nice stort one. Loved it and enjoyed the ending very much.

The next door neighbor stores are some of the best in Sci/Fi. Who lives next door and what are they really up to!!

Of course in today's world one's neighbors can look strange or even weird without anyone batting a eye.

But in the fifties, it seemed most neighborhoodd did in fact look like the Nelson family or Leave it to Beaver!!

The dads always had a suit on and the moms always had an apron one!!! At least on TV, so a strange looking family would really have stood out!!!

But today if an space-alien family did move in, they would probably appear more normal that the rest of the neighbor!! At least where I come from!!!