It was Daniel. No one had ever heard his voice, but I knew. I didn’t bother to throw a robe over my nightgown and I ran toward his room, and when I got there I saw him sitting up in bed, fat tears crawling down his terrified face, his hands clamped over his ears and his unused voice screaming and screaming and screaming.

I tried to take his hands away but he kept them firm and tight. I took him by the shoulders and hugged him and rocked him but he kept screaming. I pulled back and looked in his eyes, and held up my hand STOP. He shook his head, still scared to death and that horrible sound coming out of his mouth. Evelyn was on the other side of the bed suddenly, reaching behind to cup his shoulders. We looked at each other in fearful bafflement.

Jeff appeared at the doorway, sleep-clouded, and asked Evelyn harshly what all the noise was about. She told him we didn’t know yet, and he left the doorway, walking back toward our bedroom; the door slammed a moment later. I reached out to Daniel’s mouth and covered it with my hand, then I gently tried to close his jaw. This seemed to make sense to him and he calmed, his scream decreasing like the declining wail of a siren. I could not get his hands away from his ears.

Evelyn looked at me and said “Whatever do you think is the matter?” Daniel whipped his hand-covered head around, nearly hitting her in the face with his upturned elbow, and looked at her in shock. I heard him inhale and get ready to scream again, and I took him by the shoulders and made him look at me, shaking my head NO. He looked pleadingly at me. It clicked.

“I think he heard you,” I said to Evelyn.