Karen Stevens sat up with a start.  Her eyes stabbed holes in the darkness.  Had she heard a voice?  A wisp of dream invading reality.

     Her ears strained.  She heard Sarah's soft rhythmic breathing and the occasional baby murmurs and sighs over the nursery monitor. It was nothing.  She tried to relax, letting her head drop back to the pillow.

     Maybe she'd been a fool to leave Mark.  At least while they were living together she could sleep at night.  Now it was all fits and starts.  She was a bundle of frustration ready to explode at anyone.  She thought about calling Mark and apologizing.  He wasn't much of a father for Sarah, but he was better than nothing.  With luck he'd take them back.  Is that good luck or bad luck, she wondered.  Probably bad.  She turned over and closed her eyes.

     "I know," the motherly voice said.  "But I'm here now."

     Karen stared at the monitor.  A pit yawned in her stomach. That voice had come from the speaker.  There was someone in the room with her baby!

     "Oh God!"  Karen bolted out of bed and rushed to Sarah's room. Throwing open the door, she swept her hand along the wall and flicked the room to brightness.

     Sarah lay in her crib, a smile playing across her moistened lips.

     There was no one in sight.  The closet was empty.  The curtains swayed gently in the breeze, but when Karen brushed the curtains aside she saw that the screen was still in place.

     She covered her face with her hands and wiped tears from her cheeks.  One week alone in a new apartment and already hearing things.  Sarah cooed and Karen scooped her up out of the crib. Karen wrinkled her nose.  Sarah needed to be changed.  "It's okay," she said rocking the baby back and forth.  "Mommy's here."

     Fragments of fear clung to her as she changed Sarah.  She kept thinking that someone was in the apartment.  That they were right behind her, but when she turned, there was no one there.  Should she call Mark?  That's a good one, she thought.  He'd be pissed if she interrupted him at work--he might burn the doughnuts.  She could hear his exasperated tone.  "You called me because you imagined a voice in your apartment?  You see what happens when you don't have a man around?"

     She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.  She never should have moved in with him in the first place.  She should have gone to college like all her friends.  Maybe then she could get a job that paid more than the pittance she received as a secretary.

     But then she wouldn't have Sarah.  The baby was her reason to take each breath; she was her whole life.

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