The Cry

1

The sound of a baby crying pulled Rebecca out of her sleep. She opened her eyes but remained still for a moment, staring into the darkness. Her room was unfamiliar in the way new places often were. The curtains were different, the ceiling looked strange, and even the faint light coming through the window fell across the room in a way she was not used to. Then she remembered. She was in her new apartment.

Rebecca turned her head towards the bedside table and reached for her phone. The screen lit up, and she squinted at the time. 2:17 a.m.

“Ah, God,” she whispered, dropping the phone beside her pillow. “Who is crying at this time?”

She pulled the bedsheet up to her shoulders and closed her eyes again. Perhaps the sound had come from outside. Maybe somebody was passing through the compound with a child. She was too sleepy to bother thinking about it.

Just as she was about to drift off again, she heard the baby cry a second time. Rebecca opened her eyes immediately. This time, she was sure the sound had come from the apartment beside hers.

She lifted her head from the pillow and listened but didn’t hear anything. She waited for a few seconds, expecting another cry, but the room remained quiet.

“Hmm.”

She sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. That was strange. The baby had cried once, gone quiet, and then cried again. Now there was nothing. Not even a little whimper.

“Maybe the mother has carried the baby,” she muttered.

She lay back down, pulling the pillow closer. “Or maybe the baby was hungry. She has probably given the child br£ast.”

That sounded reasonable enough. A hungry baby could cry and then become quiet once the mother started feeding it. There was no reason to make a big deal out of something that could have such a simple explanation.

She waited another minute. Then two but nothing came from the next apartment. She turned onto her side and stared at the wall.

“It's not possible for a baby to cry just like that and stop,” she whispered. “Or maybe I'm just too sleepy.”

She almost laughed at herself. “Rebecca, please. You just came to this house. Don't start looking for trouble where there is none.”

She had enough things on her mind already. The last thing she needed was to lie awake all night worrying about a baby that wasn't even hers.

“If not for my former landlord, would I be here now?” she grumbled, pulling the sheet over herself. “I would be sleeping peacefully in my own house. But because one man doesn't know how to behave himself, I have to start my life all over again.”

She stopped and sighed. She did not want to think about her former landlord. Not tonight.

Instead, she focused on the quiet around her. The ceiling fan turned slowly above her, and somewhere outside, a vehicle passed along the road. The compound itself seemed asleep. Rebecca closed her eyes.

She was still new to the building, a small, one-storey block of flats with four apartments. Two were downstairs and two upstairs. Her own apartment was downstairs, beside the flat where she believed the baby lived.

She had not met the neighbour yet. She didn't know her name, what she looked like, or whether she lived alone with the baby or had other family members staying with her. Rebecca had only recently moved in, and she had been too occupied with settling down to pay attention to anybody else.

She assumed there was a family next door. It was the simplest explanation. Besides, she would meet the other tenants eventually. There was no need to start knocking on doors in the middle of the night. She adjusted her pillow and took a deep breath.

“Let me sleep, abeg,” she whispered.

This time, she stopped listening. Within a short while, her tiredness took over, and she fell asleep again. There was nothing more to think about. Rebecca had no idea that she would never hear that baby cry again.