Hush Little Baby

"It's 82 degrees in here, John," Marissa yells into her phone, "I have a four-year-old and a seven-month-old baby...we can't live like this!"

Marissa paces back and forth in her living room with her phone pressed between her ear and shoulder while simultaneously rocking her baby.

"If the air doesn't get fixed today, I'm calling Channel 5," Marissa snaps back before abruptly ending the call.

She tosses her phone aimlessly. Emmy, her infant, fusses endlessly despite being rocked by her mother. Jake, the four-year-old, bangs on his toy drum set with all his might. Clash. Clash. Clash. The wooden sticks collide with the symbols. Waaaah. Waaaaah. The baby wails at her highest decibel. Sweat beads lift from Marissa's pores and glaze her skin. She places the baby on her hip, bouncing Emmy with one hand while fanning herself with the other.

"Emmy, please," Marissa pleads for the baby to stop crying. Jake jumps up and lands with his two sticks on the symbols.

"Boom!" He yells. The excess noise sends the baby into a frenzy.

"Stop it!" Marissa roars.

Jake freezes in place. The baby hushes instantaneously. Marissa is finally rewarded with silence. She flops down on the couch and continues to attempt rocking the baby to sleep while Jake silently searches for something else to play with. Emmy coos gently while being coddled in her mother's arms. Marissa makes an effort to relax, however, the rising temperature of her home causes her skin to stick to the cushions of her leather couch in the most uncomfortable way. She dares not move an inch as she notices Emmy's eyes growing heavy with sleep. Marissa's thighs melt into the couch creating a sticky pool of sweat beneath her. She has never felt so disgusting. The heat creates a level of discomfort that is driving Marissa crazy.

After about a half-hour of agony, Marissa sees that Jake has fallen asleep in the play pin. She slowly rises from the couch and gently lays her sleeping baby down next to her brother in the pin. Marissa seizes this opportunity to take a cold shower and maybe even squeeze a nap in for herself. She scurries off to her bathroom and gets the shower started immediately. The cold water raining down is a treat to her skin. She stands under the water for a while allowing her body temperature to slowly lower to a normal range. She takes in the silence with a deep appreciation. She finds peace at this moment.

When Marissa is finished, she wraps herself in a towel and quickly peers into the living room where the two children still lay in the play pin. She is thankful to see that they are still sleeping. She closes the door to the room, allows the towel to drop to her ankles, and drapes her naked body across her bed. The ceiling fan cycling above her adds an extra chill to do her damp skin. She drifts slowly away from consciousness.

"A quick nap won't hurt," she thinks to herself as she allows her eyelids to lower.

Jake awakes from his nap as Emmy screams and kicks wildly while lying next to him.

"Hush little baby, don't you cry," he sings to no avail.

The baby's mouth shakes and quivers as the cries grow louder. Jake climbs over the wall of the play pin and runs to his mother's room. He bangs on her door as hard as his little hands can. There was no answer.

He attempts to bang on the door harder while yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!"

Still, there was no answer. Jake twists the knob of the door, but it is locked. Feeling defeated, He retreats to the play pin and lifts the howling baby.

"What's the matter, little Emmy?" the baby quiets when lifted and coos as she inserts fingers into her mouth.

"Are you hungry?" Jake remembers how his mother asks Emmy that whenever she chews her fingers.

Jake doesn't know how to make a bottle so he tries to think of things that babies might like to eat. He wipes the sweat from his brow while brainstorming and quickly realizes that he is hungry as well. He scoops the baby up in one arm, barely providing any support as Emmy's torso dangles loosely, and uses all his strength to hoist them over the wall of the play pin. On the other side, he sets the baby down and proceeds to the kitchen. Emmy crawls slowly behind Jake, following her brother. Jake holds the door to the refrigerator open while scanning its contents.

"Milk!" Jake exclaims as he grabs the jug with both hands and removes it from the fridge.

He sets the jug on the floor, then drags a chair from the kitchen table towards the counter and uses it as a stool to reach the cups in the dish rack. He places two cups on the floor next to the jug and attempts to pour milk for Emmy and himself. The cool liquid sloshes from the jug wildly as it is too heavy for Jake and ends up mostly on the floor. Jake was able to get just a little bit of the milk into Emmy and his cups. Emmy crawls into the milk puddle and splashes with amusement. Sprinkles of milk litter Jake's skin and provide temporary relief from the heat in the home. He finishes his milk and then joins Emmy in splashing in the puddle. When the puddle spreads too thin to splash in, Jake tries feeding Emmy by holding her mouth open to pour the milk in.

Ack. Gack. Emmy gags on the milk as it slides freely down her throat. She flails her arms wildly knocking the cup from Jake's hand, drenching them both in milk. Jake pats her back frantically, just like he saw his mother do whenever Emmy chokes. Emmy spits up the excess milk and gasps for breath.

"Mommy won't like this," Jake states as he takes note of the mess they have made.

He scrambles to his feet and takes off for the bathroom. Jake figures that he should run a bath for Emmy and himself since they were both soaked in milk. He turns the knob labeled "C" on the tub faucet and lets the water run. Then he returns with Emmy, stripped down to her bare skin, and places her in the tub. The water has yet to rise past Emmy's thigh, so Jake lets it run some more. He returns to the kitchen where he takes a dry mop and tries to clean the milk puddle. Jake panics as the mess he's made seems to spread, so he mops furiously. After several minutes of hard work, Jake stops to wipe the sweat from his face. His stomach growls as he realizes he never found anything to eat. What's good to eat on a hot day? Ice cream! Jake's face lights up at the realization. He takes the chair he placed at the counter and drags it to a large, free-standing freezer in the corner. He lifts the lid and struggles as he reaches his little arm inside to get the ice cream.

Boom!

"Maintenance!" John knocks at the door to Marissa's apartment.

He waits for a response and then knocks again. He enters after the second knock. The first thing he notices is the milk smeared across the kitchen floor with the jug sitting in the center of it all. Upon picking the jug up and setting it on the counter, he notices the chair in front of the freezer in the corner. Curiosity peaks within John. In all the apartments that he has entered, he's never seen anything this peculiar. He moves the chair back to its position at the table, but something urges him to look inside the freezer. He lifts the lid to see a small boy frozen in the fetal position. He jumps back allowing the lid to slam shut.

"What the hell!?!" he exclaims as he clutches his chest.

Just as John is about to panic, he hears the faint sound of water running. John decides to follow the noise in hopes of locating the tenant. As he gets closer to the sound, he notices that the carpet beneath his feet is damp. He rushes into the bathroom, then lets out a gut-wrenching shriek.

The scream sounds off loud enough to awake Marissa from her sleep. She bolts from her room and notices that her children are no longer in the play pin. She is now frantic and rushes toward the sound of a man sobbing. In the hallway, she encounters John, who is on his knees in the doorway of the bathroom.

"How could you?" He questions at the sight of her.

In pursuit of her children, Marissa doesn't even hear John. She shoves past him and drops to the edge of the tub. There, she found little Emmy floating face down in the water.