Eavesdropping—D.M.K. Ruby
Overheard in the Secret Garden in Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 28, 2025:
“What a great sentence!” A young woman says to her companion as they walk past me on a tree lined path in this gorgeous setting. What was the great sentence? Perhaps the companion was going to repeat it? Can I turn around and start following them to find out without making it awkward and weird? They are swallowed up in the crowd in moments and I am left to wonder, what? What was the great sentence??? I can’t stop thinking about the possibilities, was it related to the garden? A comeback or set down in a family argument at Christmas dinner? A retail worker’s response to an annoying customer? Aaaargh! If only I had passed by seconds earlier to hear the sentence in question!
For years, I have jotted down sentences I hear that catch my attention for some reason. For example, I was recently in an airport and overheard someone in a group of friends say, “It’s hard for me to remember what’s a weird interaction anymore because my bar for weird has changed”. I think of all the weird interactions I’ve had since the pandemic and the current chaos in the world and felt that sentence resonate with my soul. MY bar for weird has changed as well and I imagined a character in a story where she encounters increasingly unusual people until she herself is the architect of strange interactions. I’ve never written anything in the speculative fiction realm but maybe now is the time to try it out.
Another recent example. Two men in their 30’s pass me on the street pushing their bikes, both wearing Atari t-shirts and having an animated conversation, one says to the other, “Even all our staff are going through divorces”. It was the word “even” that caught my imagination. Was he going through a divorce himself? Was it because he spent all his time gaming online? Or was he consoling the other man who was going through a divorce? What kind of work setting created an environment where everyone gets divorced? Was he in health care? In law? In government? A quick Google search reveals that the highest rate of divorce is among Gaming Managers, and then I had to look up what is a Gaming Manager – turns out they work in a casino. Other high-risk professions are bartenders, military personnel and flight attendants among others. Is there a story in there of the lone holdout working at a casino who is still married to his first partner and why is he the exception? So many possible stories!
As Sarah Larson writes in her excellent article “Eavesdropping Through a Pandemic” which was in the New Yorker June 16, 2021, “There are two kinds of overheard conversations: the kind you try to avoid and the kind that inspire eavesdropping”. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/dept-of-returns/eavesdropping-through-a-pandemic
What is it about an overhead conversation that piques our interest? Maybe it is because as readers, we are always eavesdropping on conversations and thoughts through the course of a story. I often wonder, what is it about an overheard comment that stands out - we hear so many banal conversations and comments during the day like “here’s your coffee” or “can I borrow your pen” that don’t register.
For me, I am intrigued by the expression of emotions in a comment like anger, astonishment, humour and outrage. The language used and the setting also play a role. There’s also the feeling of being privy to a private conversation that feels slightly naughty. But then I feel defensive, aren’t they giving me tacit permission to listen because they’re having a loud conversation in a public space? Why do we all feel we have a false sense of privacy in public spaces, revealing dark personal thoughts as though the strangers around us can’t hear?
I’m annoyed by all the tactics used in restaurants to discourage us from hearing others’ conversation like loud music, ambient sounds, spacing of tables and strategically placed plants and other barriers. I’m also thwarted in coffee shops where the sound of the loud grinders and milk frothers drown out interesting conversations! I seem to overhear conversations most when I’m out walking, at a coffee shop, in airports and a surprising number at the grocery store. I don’t take the bus as often anymore but that is a great source of conversation as well although it comes with inherent disappointment as the people I’m listening to invariably get off a stop too soon for me to hear what happens next. But that means I can make up the rest of the story as I’ve done in several abandoned short stories that I am planning to dust off and finally finish in 2025.
Finally, my favourite eavesdropping tips on how to be a rubbernecker without LOOKING like you’re a spy:
-headphones but not turned on.
-book or magazine, occasionally flipping a page but storing what you’re hearing until you can write it down.
-phone where you are typing into your Notes app, looking like you’re doing something for work instead of transcribing the conversation you are listening to at the next table over
-writing in a notebook but this one is becoming a challenge as it seems no one writes in a notebook in public spaces anymore so may be hard to pull off now.
-typing directly into your laptop while studiously avoiding any glances at the source of the fascinating conversation.
And one more to finish, overheard at Lifestyles Market in Victoria several years ago:
A young man is talking to an older gentleman and telling him about his urinary tract infection “I tried everything, like juniper oil to treat it naturally but then it looked like it was spreading so I ended up at Emergency at 10:00pm on the Friday night.”
“Oh my god, are you ok?” The older man asked.
The young man shook his head and said, “The doctor told me I was ‘this close’ to losing my testicle. She said she was glad I hadn’t waited and now I’m on some antibiotics so I’m here to get some probiotics”.
I have yet to write the right story to incorporate this nugget of conversational gold, but it’s stored in my notebook for when the moment appears.
What is your favourite bit of overheard conversation? Looking forward to your comments!