It was one dark rainy morning and I was getting late for work. I  grabbed my long dark black coat and quickly walked out of my basement. Outside my house, I saw there were 3 police cars, an ambulance, and  a firetruck parked in the next door house. I wanted to go to the policeman ask him what happened, but in this world where people had a mentality of ” minding your own business”  I didn’t think it was right to go and ask what happened?  Also, I was already in a rush. What happened in my neighborhood? Is my neighbor ok? The thoughts were there while rushing to work, I quickly got in my car and drove away.

I  made it to my work on time and soon I was in front of the world as a cashier at Tim Horton’s. Tackle people I never met and  be nice to them on this wet Monday morning.  Some of them very grumpy, for whatever reason; whether it was Monday, or it was dark and wet, or they were up this early? Even though this world kept telling me ” learn to mind your own business” I was unable to stop thinking about my neighbor’s house?  The mind was still there.

Yeah, I know there was a beautiful couple living there. A husband and a wife. In fact, they just had a baby.

“Excuse me. I have been waiting for 10 minutes. Can you please have my order ready little quicker?” a lady was shouting at me when I was lost in my thoughts.

“Yes, I apologize for the delay. Here you go” I put up a nice smile on my face and handed over the order.

I was back to my thoughts. Everything was loud; still so quite. My mind had a different kind of noise. I could listen to only one person and that was my own voice in my mind. So what could have happened? That was a perfect family. Both the husband and wife worked as a computer engineers for the same company. It is defiantly not money. Domestic violence usually happens when there are money issues.

A saw her walking with a stroller just a few weeks ago. My mind kept thinking.

“Can I please order assorted donuts?”

“yes. how many?” I asked. Even though my body was physically there my mind was somewhere else.  The eight-hour shift seemed to be never ending. Finally, I got off from work. I picked up my car and starting driving towards my house. I was hoping nothing bad would have happened. Hopefully, it would have been just a  gas leak or false fire alarm. This loud siren in the city sound like someone dying or some sort of accident or something bad happening…. like city would be screaming from top of its lungs for safety!!! Save me!!

I got home and noticed the police was still there. It looked like a crime scene. I wanted to know what happened?

” Hello, I am a neighbor. Everything all right?” I asked.

” It is  a crime scene please do not enter. We are investigating. A baby was found dead in the house with unknown cause of death.” the police officer told me.

I stepped back and walked towards my basement. My black coat felt heavier than ever. The baby passed away? Was she sick? A cloud of confusion started to float over my head .

Tired from all day I didn’t want to think about anything.  I went to bed and started to read the book. Soon I fell asleep.

I had a whole week to go. Slowly I started to forget about that night.

The week went by pretty quickly. It was Friday. I decided to go to the pub near by my house. At night, some friends dropped me off home. Tired from all weeks work, it didn’t take me very long to fall sleep. Also, I had few drinks.

Next morning, I woke up. It was cold. I got off from my bed and wrapped myself in my robe.  A warm cup of coffee sounded like a great idea. I grabbed my cup and went to watch my living room. After turning on my tv I started to flip channels. Saturdays are usually boring, especially if you just have a basic cable. I was flipping the channels and then I saw my neighbors house on a news channel. I quickly flipped back to the news channel. I was curious.

” Breaking News. A three months old baby was found dead  in an apartment building on Monday and reasons were unknown. The forensic report discovered the reason was malnutrition. The parents have been charged with several charges including failure to provide proper care. Our sources have found that parents were too busy playing video games and were ironically raising a virtual child on the internet. Parents failed to provide baby with proper care and food. Slowly the infant passed away with starvation.”

The remote fell on the floor. Just then an ambulance passed by and deafened my ears even more!