Decoy

Lyla's voice is unmistakable on the baby monitor. Even with the nursery radio and table fan in the background, if she's jabbering away or fussing, you hear it.

I might be going insane, though, because I'll sit in the livingroom and swear that I hear her. Then I'll pause, listen harder, and decide that it wasn't her after all. It was something on the nursery radio with a frequency similar to Lyla's voice. Or it was a hallucination.

I used to creep up the stairs anyway just to be sure, and there she'd be, sleeping in her crib. Then I'd creek the floor, she'd stir and wake up, and I'd want to punch myself in the face for ending her nap prematurely.

So now I sit in the livingroom and concentrate idiotically to discern whether it's really her, knowing that it's not. But is it? No. Wait, but what about--no, not her!

But where I'm really going insane is that once I decide unequivocally that it isn't Lyla's voice on the monitor, thirty seconds later I hear her for real.

I'm not sure if any of this makes sense. Maybe you need to experience it for yourself. Bottom line, I think we need a video monitor.