Radio Jet Lag by Gregor Craigie

Author:Gregor Craigie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC019000 FICTION / Literary FIC016000 FICTION / Humorous / General FIC045000 FICTION / Family Life / General
Publisher: Cormorant Books
Published: 2023-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

August 2016

Steve had just laid little Liam down in the twin crib when his 03:30 alarm clock burst into its shrill sonic assault. The weary father sprung across the room to turn it off in seconds. He’d known it was coming but had lost track of time and was surprised to hear its jarring sound crash into the quiet. As the echo faded in his ears, he kept his finger pressed firmly on the off button and listened through the silence for either of the twins or Noah to wake. To his amazement, no one did. Even Carole, who had only nodded off a short time earlier while nursing Liam, remained asleep. Steve felt dizzy and sat down unsteadily, perching himself on the side of the bed until the feeling faded. He felt awful, completely and utterly awful. The night had been one long series of interruptions due to the twins’ separate wakings and Noah’s occasional bad dream or complaint about sore teeth. Steve had found the month since the twins arrived extremely tiring, but manageable. Although their sleep was interrupted frequently, both Steve and Carole managed to recoup a few hours later in the mornings by giving each other breaks and leaning on their visiting parents. But on his first Monday back to work, there would be no breaks.

Steve picked up the pile of neatly folded clothes he’d left beside the bed and paused beside the twin crib to check on Liam and his larger brother, Henry, one last time. Both were swaddled snugly and sleeping peacefully. Steve tiptoed out of the room and poked his head through the half-open door to Noah’s room long enough to see his older son sound asleep in his crib.

Steve slid his sock feet along the floor to the edge of the steep stairs leading down. He squinted in the dark at the child safety gate in front of him and debated trying to open the difficult steel clasp or trying to climb over it. He had been opening and re-opening the clasp for a month, and yet still hadn’t quite figured out how to do it silently. Not only did the metal squeak when it was squeezed, but the slatted wood gate also creaked when lifted out of its brackets and swung open. It wasn’t loud, but it was noisy enough to wake Noah. The boy had already woken up several times to the familiar sound, but Steve had never tried to climb over the gate. Not until now. It had always seemed like a dumb idea. Common sense would dictate that he should open it, but the prospect of a small squeak waking someone was more than he could stand in his own sleep-deprived state. He wanted to leave the house silently for his first day back at work, without waking anyone.

Tucking his folded clothes under his right arm, he used his left hand to grab the wooden handrail. The gate came up to his hip, but Steve prided himself on being flexible.

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