KCRW's car donation program is sponsored by local Kia dealers,

introducing the all new EV6 with a vehicle to load function that turns the

E.6 into a mobile power source.

More info at Kia.com.

From the Independent Producer Project of KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is a program of true stories and personal documentaries and on this

episode we're going to listen to a radio story produced in 2012. It was the winner of the 2013 LA Press Club Award for Best Radio

Documentary and in a way it's sort of a fable of apartment living. What happens when you share your walls with someone else's life?

Well, without ever meaning to, you might become a character in their story.

And as you know, you can hear some really personal living through those walls,

even though later on you'll just nod and say hello and you see the neighbors on the elevator.

There was this one time that my wife and I lived in a big complex of apartment towers

and you'd see the same faces all the time but you'd only speak to them every now

and then. But my wife and I definitely made up stories about the fellow tenants, like the flamboyant

elderly man who wore a scarf, was the theatrical producer, or the tall guy with the fashionable

glasses was the architect, and there was the actor dude the swim

class lady and the improv parents. Now there was this one time when I was feeling

a little bit chatty so I asked the tall guy with the fashionable glasses what he did

for a living and it turns out he was an architect. I guess sometimes you can read people and

sometimes you can't. Sometimes you can't.

I never ever saw him without his round beish hat.

When he was outside you didn't see him without a hat on.

...