I jerk awake on Sunday morning and look over at my clock.

“3:30AM” it glares at me.

I stick my arm out and wrench the covers loose, Sara looks at me and blinks slowly, half-asleep, too.  I lay back, close my eyes, and wonder why I woke up.  It doesn’t take long before I hear it.   Crying.  Faint at first, but it goes louder and louder until it sounds like a baby is wailing right by my bed.

My eyes snap open, and I look over at Sara, whose ears perk up at the noise and she is staring at the wall behind my bed.  I look over at my clock,  4:12AM.  I must’ve dosed off.  I swing my legs over my bed and stand up, staring at my wall.  The crying sounds like it gets closer and then further away, like someone is carrying the baby around.  I hold my ear up to the wall.  I can hear someone talking, but it sounds far away.

So far, that has happened EVERY.  SINGLE.  NIGHT.  since Sunday.

Last night I wake up at around 2:30AM.

“Pleaseeee let it be just for Halloween, the holidays,”  I say to no one.  I told my coworkers yesterday, and one of them said “What if they just had a baby?”

Oh, God.

I look over at Scrappy, who is sleeping in Sara’s bed.

“Oi, wake up!”  I say, wrenching my arm from underneath the tight grasp of my covers and hitting the bed, Scrappy jerks awake and looks at me as if she would like nothing more than for me to spontaneously burst into flame.

I slump back onto my pillow and groan, listening to the cooing baby sounds coming from my neighbors.  I take the pillow out from under my head and hold it over my face.  I wake up a little while later coughing…suffocating from breathing in the pillowcase.  I shove the pillow off my face and look at my clock: 3:45AM it says.

The crying is at normal volume again, and I can’t put the pillow back over my face unless I want a homicide investigation happening at my apartment within the next few days (”Died of Suffocation, Foulplay?” The headlines will read, I’m sure of it)

I’m considering sleeping on the couch tonight just to get some real sleep.

It’s either that or I go out and buy liquor.