Failure to Overcome

(Ed note: Apologies for the spotty uploads lately. I’ve been apartment hunting in 80%+ humidity and by the time I get home, I’m fair well shattered and unable to really do much of anything.)

The silence within a nursery was broken by the sound of an infant’s wail. It was allowed to continue crying in the brightly painted nursery for a few minutes, then a merely “pretty” middle-aged woman walked into the room and moved to the side of the crib.

(Ed note: For those curious as to why the baby was left crying for a few minutes, it’s an early childhood development strategy. By picking up an infant as soon as it starts crying, you teach it that crying equals attention. In a nutshell, never pick up a crying baby unless it’s sick or injured. Let it cry for a few minutes, then distract it until it stops crying before finally picking it up.)

She leaned over the crib and teased the infant with a canary-yellow plush toy until it stopped wailing with a hiccup and focused on the toy, reaching out fo