What’s that sound?

[Drifting up from consciousness…]

Ugh! Why am I awake?! What time is it, anyway?

[Looking at the clock: 3:35]

What the crap? Why am I awake at this ungodly hour of the morning?

[The fog begins to clear]

OK. I hear a sound. What is it?

[Sitting up in bed, listening intently]

It’s not the water heater. Is it the furnaces? No. It sounds like running water, though.

[Getting out of bed, pulling on robe and heading toward the bathroom at the opposite end of the house]

I can’t hear it over here. It must be just at the front half. I should pee while I’m here. It’s gonna suck for me to be playing with water in the middle of the night and have to pee at the same time.

[Taking care of business]

Hey, the noise I heard sounds distinctly like a toilet running. That can’t be good. It means that the toilet upstairs is either running (and has been for, like, hours) or it’s leaking and the ceiling is going to come crashing down on Suzanne any second.

[Going back to the bedroom, breathing a small sigh of relief that the ceiling is still intact]

The noise is still there. Crap! Maeve and Caleb are going to be hard to wake up at this time of the morning.

“Suzanne, are you awake enough to hear my voice?”

“grunt.”

[Explaining problem]

“Should I call up there?”

(still sleepy) “Yeah, you should.”

[Searching in the dark for a phone; dialing]

7 - 7... “Brian.” 3 - 7... “Brian, it stopped.”

“What?”

[Listening]

“Huh. You’re right. It stopped.”

[Lying in bed, spending the rest of the night listening for water…]