Sounds

I heard that wailing again last night.

It was exactly 2:48 am when the sound forced me out of my sleep. I felt my whole body go tense.

"Martin," I whispered, "Martin, can you hear it?" I reach across and rubbed his shoulder. He moaned slowly. I think I may have heard him say, "What?"

"I can hear it again," I said. "Listen."

He shuffled around slightly and pulled the blanket up over his head.

"Martin," I hissed, allowing my voice to become louder. "Wake up. You can hear it clearly now."

The wails were filling the air. I was sure I wasn't imagining it. I think I actually heard the sound of a car going past the house at the same time as I heard the baby's crying, which sort of proved to me that I wasn't making it up, because if I could hear one 'real' sound, then surely the other one must have been real as well.

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. I looked at the clock by my side again. Yes, I'd seen the time correctly: it was 2:49.

I cleared my throat. "Martin, you've got to get up." I pushed his shoulders again. "Martin, please!"

His voice emerged, thick and sleepy. "Oh, for God's sake, Pauline, what is it?"

"Listen!"

He turned to look at me, his eyes blinking. We remained silent for a while, looking at each other.

Suddenly, the sound was gone. Everything around us was silent.

"I just heard it a second ago," I said.

"Heard what?" he asked, lying back down again.

"You know what!" I pushed the blanket aside and walked up to the window, my feet cold on the carpet. "It was loud and it was clear. If you'd woken up ten seconds faster, you would've heard it too!"

He began pulling the blanket over himself again. "Pauline, please just let me get some sleep."

"But I heard it!"

"Yes, okay, you heard it. Now just get back to bed."

I walked over to his side of the bed and pulled the blanket off him. "No! I want you to stay up so you can hear it too!"

He looked into my eyes for a few seconds. Then, with a sudden release of tension, he bolted out of bed, grabbed a pillow and began walking towards the door. He stopped in the doorway for a moment and turned around. His voice was low and rigid. "No! YOU can stay up. YOU can spend another night listening for this fucking baby! I am going to get some sleep!" He slammed the door behind him.

I turned to the window, straining my ears.

No more sounds came. After about ten minutes, I got back into bed and tried to get to sleep.